Scandal suspect freed on huge bail

Dimitris Kontominas, a key suspect in the unsecured loans scandal that has mired Hellenic Postbank (TT), was given conditional release Wednesday after posting a record 5 million euros in bail.

The 75-year-old owner of Alpha TV channel and the Interamerican insurance firm, who has been under police guard in an Athens hospital for the past week, was banned from leaving the country and ordered to report regularly to police.

The decision to release Kontominas, who is alleged to have been granted a 110-million-euro loan by TT without adequate guarantees, was taken by a judicial council after a prosecutor and magistrate involved in the investigation disagreed about what his fate should be.