There will be no trip home for Greek Panagiotis Koutoukakis while he awaits trial in the USA, Magistrate Judge Bristol Marchant ruled at a motion to amend bond conditions for the defense.
Koutoukakis, detained in South Carolina, is facing charges of violating pollution laws on a chemical tanker, as he allegedly falsified records to cover up illegal pollution discharges as the chief engineer of the Green Sky tanker.
The Greek native is free on an unsecured bond, at a steep 25,000 dollars, but that only allows him movement in South Carolina.
A main reason for the restriction of Koutoukakis returning home to his native Greece has much to do with the laws of Greece, not with the man himself.
Although Koutoukakis claims that the USA’s government not allowing him to return to Greece will put his family in a dire economic crisis, Magistrate Judge Bristol Marchant agreed with prosecutors that Greece’s weak extradition laws made it too big a risk to allow Koutoukakis to return to Greece while awaiting trial.
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