Α front-page story over the weekend added yet another “twist” to the ongoing legal and political quagmire revolving around a seemingly never-ending judicial investigation into allegations of kickbacks by Novartis’ Greek subsidiary to a handful of past office-holders.
Greece’s best-selling weekly, “Proto Thema”, over the weekend a bannered a story citing charges by a former high court prosecutor Yannis Aggelis of an “orchestrated” attempt to implicate political rivals of the current SYRIZA government in the Novartis investigation, including past prime ministers, health ministers and a finance minister. Aggelis pointed to an investigation aimed at securing indictments in a “fast track” manner.
The political opposition in Greece, particularly main opposition New Democracy (ND) and the PASOK-dominated Kinima party, has repeatedly and vociferously charged that the Novartis case is a classic smear campaign engineered by specific SYRIZA ministers and judicial officials.
The allegations, which the current anti-corruption prosecutor has acted upon in order to send the voluminous indictment to Parliament – due to the fact past and current office-holders are named – is based on testimony over the past year and a half by up to four anonymous witnesses. However, little or no corroborating evidence has been cited after years of probes into the finances of alleged suspects and Novartis’ subsidiary in Greece.
A ND announcement on Monday cited an “organized political conspiracy aimed at tarnishing specific politicians, including two past premiers and the (current) Bank of Greece governor.”
Kinima Allaghis president Fofi Gennimata said Aggelis’ accusations, as published by Proto Thema, undoubtedly point to a political conspiracy set up in the Novartis case.
“…Mr. Tsipras, you have a major responsibility for the conspiracy, and you owe answers,” she said, referring to Greek PM Alexis Tsipras. “Whatever you (SYRIZA) do, no cover-up will be successful”.
In response to the front-page story, prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki, who heads up the still ongoing Novartis investigation as the head of the anti-corruption unit, sent an extrajudicial notice to the paper, demanding an apology and a published retraction.
Touloupaki, who herself has attracted extensive criticism over her handling of the case, referred to her former colleague’s allegations as “baseless and unreliable”.
The multi-year investigation by successive anti-corruption prosecutors into the alleged kickbacks has so far proved more of a “tempest in a teapot” than the “greatest scandal” in modern Greece’s history. Incriminating evidence against nine out of the 10 implicated former office-holders failed to be presented by prosecutors as of April 2019
Three former prime ministers, including a caretaker premier for a few weeks, two ex-finance ministers along with past health ministers between 2007 and 2014 – but excluding current Cabinet members in the SYRIZA government – were initially included in an indictment sent to Parliament – as foreseen under Greek law – for MPs to decide if prosecution of any of the 10 was warranted. The indictment was sent back to Touloupaki, who then conveyed a warrant for a sole politician – former minister and current MP Andreas Loverdos – to provide testimony as a “suspect” in an alleged crime.
The allegations against Evangelos Venizelos, Andreas Lykourentzos, Giorgos Koutroumanis and Panagiotis Pikrammenos – a caretaker premier – were initially based on closed-door testimony by a trio of anonymous witnesses.
The investigation continues, at least officially, against another five.
In its response two months ago, ND recycled hyperbole by the current alternate justice minister, Dimitris Papaggelopoulos, who appeared before television cameras on the sidewalk outside the premier’s office at one point to refer to the “so-called ‘greatest scandal since the establishment of the Greek state”.
Papaggelopoulos is noteworthy for the fact that he served as a top anti-terrorism prosecutor during a ND government between 2004 and 2009, as well as the head of Greece’s intelligence agency for a few months in 2009.
Touloupaki’s predecessor, Eleni Raikou, had resigned after condemning what she called “non-institutional interventions” in her Novartis subsidiary investigation.
