GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Ilias G. Anagnostopoulos and Padelis V. Bratis, ANAGNOSTOPOULOS
Non-Compliance by the Defendant Consequences of a defendant’s non-compliance with aforementioned court orders could include the impo - sition of a fine of up to EUR100,000 as well as their personal detention (Article 947 GCCivP). Moreover, a person who tries to conceal, transfer, destroy, etc, their property in order to prevent the enforcement of a judgment could be held criminally liable by virtue of Article 397 GCC. According to said article, a debtor who intentionally frustrates, in whole or in part, the satisfaction of their debt by damaging, destroying, transferring without value, concealing or appropriating without equivalent and marketable col - lateral any of their property, or who creates false deb - its of false contracts, shall be punishable by imprison - ment of up to two years or by pecuniary penalty. Asset-Freezing in Criminal Proceedings Depending on the specifics of the case (eg, banking fraud), a fraud victim could accompany their crimi - nal complaint before the competent prosecutor with a request for asset freezing against the defendant, on the basis of money-laundering legislation (Article 42 of Law 4557/2018). Besides publicly accessible information (Land Reg - istry, General Commercial Registry, etc), criminal law mechanisms are generally deemed effective in tracing a defendant’s assets. Civil Proceedings Disclosure is not a recognised or established pro - cedure for the exchange of information between liti - gants in Greek civil proceedings. The general principle established in the GCCivP is that the court acts only upon request of the litigants and reaches its ruling based on the factual allegations and evidence sub - mitted by each party. Consequently, litigants bear the burden of proving their own allegations and cannot be forced to disclose evidence in relation to the oppos - ing party’s claims or face sanctions for not acting in such a manner. 2. Procedures and Trials 2.1 Disclosure of Defendants’ Assets
Criminal Proceedings Unlike the civil procedure, prosecuting and investi - gative authorities are not solely bound by evidence adduced by the litigants. Once the competent pros - ecutor has pressed charges and made referral of the case for main investigation, the investigating judge has extensive powers to gather evidence (including requests for production of evidence/information) in accordance with the provisions of the Greek Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter, GCCP), the Constitu - tion and relevant legislation. It should be noted, however, that even during this stage of investigation the fundamental rights of the defendant (such as the right to be presumed innocent and the right to avoid self-incrimination) remain intact. 2.2 Preserving Evidence In urgent and serious cases (eg, corruption, large- scale fraud and money laundering), it is not unusual for enforcement agencies and the prosecutor to take immediate action to secure evidence, by issuing a warrant for search and seizure or by issuing freezing orders, even before any charges are filed or involved persons are called for questioning. Preservation of evidence may also be achieved through confiscation (Articles 260 et seq GCCP). Moreover, Article 245 paragraph 2 GCCP provides that, upon suspected commission of a crime, and giv - en that there is an imminent threat of loss of evidence, the competent investigative officers are entitled to perform all necessary acts in order to determine the offence and its perpetrator, even without prior notice to the prosecutor. New legislation was recently passed in Greece regard - ing the management of assets that have been frozen or seized as proceeds of criminal acts (Law 5042/2023). Such legislation, which mainly derives from relevant EU Directives, is aimed at preserving and utilising pro - ceeds of criminal offences for public purposes, includ - ing redress for victims.
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