Μake us preferred on Google At least 11 people have been arrested in the city of Katerini in Central Macedonia after police raided the municipal urban planning office on Monday morning as part of an investigation into suspected corruption involving building permits.
The arrests followed a six-month investigation by the Greek police’s Internal Affairs Division, which handles allegations of misconduct and corruption. The inquiry began after authorities received a complaint about suspected irregularities at the office.
Four of those arrested are municipal planning employees, including the head of the department, while the remaining seven are private individuals, according to media reports.
Investigators suspect that planning officials accepted under-the-table payments to give preferential treatment to certain applications for building permits, allowing them to move through the approval process more quickly.Some officials are also suspected of using other engineers’ names and professional stamps to conceal their involvement in private engineering projects.
Police searched the planning department’s offices on the second floor of Katerini’s City Hall on Monday, examining files and other records for evidence of possible wrongdoing. The premises remain closed to the public as police continue their searches.
The precise charges the suspects may face have not yet been announced, and authorities have not released further details about the original complaint. The investigation is ongoing.
