Prosecutor says five - including Germanos chain owner - should stand trial for Tsohatzopoulos-era kickbacks

Among them was Panos Germanos, the owner of the Germanos electronic goods chain that dominated Greek shopping high streets for decades.

In addition to Germanos, the prosecutor recommended the prosecution of a former head of military procurements at the defence ministry, Ioannis Sbokos, senior business executive Giorgos Kamaris and the asset managers Giorgos and Pier Christodoulidis, two brothers.

The case against them concerns illegal fees paid for the purchase of the TORM1 Russian anti-aircraft missile system, via the firm Clavis founded by Kamaris and managed by the Christodoulides' brothers. The firm is alleged to have paid Germanos two million dollars that were then moved through a succession of company accounts before ending up in the hands of Yiannis Sbokos.

Clavis is also suspected of moving roughly 12 million euros in total, which are considered the 'fee' paid to Sbokos out of a total of 90 million euros given as "gifts" for the Russian weapons.

The greater part of the above sums have been returned to the state by both Kamaris and Germanos, while the latter claims he was unaware of the provenance of the money.

Also a suspect in the same case was the businessman Vlassis Kambouroglou, who was found dead in a Jakarta hotel room in 2012.