A candidate with Greece's ruling SYRIZA party in the forthcoming European Parliament elections in May quit the race on Friday amid public furore over cashing her dead mother's pension for more than five years.

Myrsini Loizou, 53, continued receiving the pension of Maria Loizou, who had passed away in August 2007, until July 2012, totaling 52,000 euros (58,760 U.S. dollars) over 69 months -- a debt against the state which now stands at 94,000 euros after taxes, the Greek national news agency AMNA reported.

In a press statement on Friday, Loizou claimed that she had notified the authorities about her mother's death, but due to bureaucratic reasons the pension continued to be deposited in her bank account.

She thanked SYRIZA party for trusting her and voiced her intention "to continue her struggle for a fairer society."

Media reports exposed on Friday a criminal record indicating that in February 2017 Myrsini Loizou was sentenced by the Athens Appeals Court to a two-year suspended term for the pension case. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars)