Greece Sues Monastery Over Land Exchange, Seeks $12 Million, Ownership
Greece sued an Orthodox Christian monastery over a land deal, seeking ownership recognition and a damages payment.
Greece’s State Legal Council filed its case against Vatopedi monastery on June 25th asking that an Athens court recognize the government as the owner of 180 stremmata (44.5 acres) in northern Greece that was part of a land exchange deal in 2007, according to an e-mailed statement from the Athens- based finance ministry today.
The government also asked for 10 million euros ($12.3 million) in moral harm payments, the statement said.
Two members of former Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis’s government resigned in the furor over the sale of state land to the monastery, a transaction that cost Greek taxpayers 100 million euros, according to media reports.
Calls to the monastery outside of normal operating hours weren’t answered. The Vatopedi monastery, on the autonomous monastic community of Mount Athos in northern Greece, is administered by Patriarch Vartholomeos, the spiritual head of the world’s estimated 250 million Orthodox Christians.
To contact the reporter on this story: Natalie Weeks in Athens nweeks2@bloomberg.net.
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