Olympiacos chairman Evangelos Marinakis and four board members will stand trial on misdemeanour charges as part of a probe into sports violence, following a decision by a Greek judicial court.
The shipping and media tycoon who also owns English Premier League club Nottingham Forest, and the four board members have denied any wrongdoing, including an accusation of supporting a criminal organisation linked to Olympiacos fans.
According to Greek newspaper Kathimerini, the other board members include the club’s CEO Dimitris Agrafiotis and vice-presidents Kostas Karapapas and Michalis Kountouris.
“The accusation is totally baseless,” Marinakis’ lawyer Vassilis Dimakopoulos told Reuters.
A trial date has yet to be set.
The probe was launched after a riot police officer was killed by a flare in clashes with a group of Olympiacos fans outside a volleyball game in December 2023.
There is a separate trial underway for the killing.
More than 140 people, most of them fans of the club arrested since April, will stand trial on charges of participation in an alleged criminal organisation.
Lawyers representing them say they have denied the accusations, as has Olympiacos.
Marinakis protested his innocence and criticised the Greek government in a lengthy statement issued on Olympiacos’ website.
“A panic-stricken Prime Minister and the scandalously favoured media cronies who depend on the Mitsotakis system for their survival are trying to blackmail me and compromise my independence, weaponising the justice system once again to do so,” he wrote.
“Their efforts constitute a coordinated attempt to gag me, but one that has no chance of success.
“Similar attempts have been made unsuccessfully in the past by political and financial interests, but their fabricated cases have always collapsed spectacularly. The evidence is overwhelming: the real victim in this case is justice and its institutions.
“Olympiacos and myself are their overt targets, but their true goal is to erode press freedom, media independence and ultimately democracy itself. And these are values on which Alter Ego Media, the major media group in Greece, will never compromise.
“My message is this, and it is clear: I am not afraid, I will not be blackmailed, I will not negotiate, I will not back down, I will not submit. The truth will come out. Democracy will prevail. Ultimately, we will prevail (as we always do).”
