ATHENS, Greece — A prominent Greek stage actor and director has been found guilty of raping two men when they were minors.

Dimitris Lignadis, 57, was found guilty by an Athens court Wednesday in two out of four cases of rape.

Lignadis was acquitted for insufficient evidence in a third case, while the fourth accuser never appeared in court to testify, despite a court decision ordering him to. He had provided a false address.

The two rapes Lignadis was convicted of occurred in 2010 and 2015.

Following the guilty verdict, the court heard Lignadis’ lawyer, who argued for mitigating circumstances. The prosecutor then rebutted the lawyer’s arguments and the court decided not to accept them. The prosecutor proposed a sentence of 12 years for each count of rape. The court has adjourned to decide on the sentence.

Lignadis can appeal the conviction and appears certain to do so, since he has denied the charges.

Lignadis had been ordered jailed when the accusations surfaced in February 2021. A few days earlier, he had resigned from his post of artistic director of Greece’s National Theater which he had held since 2019.

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