The relevant justice minister will request that two court cases related to the Siemens kickbacks investigation and indictment receive priority status, citing a law specifically for cases of heightened importance.
Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos said he will make the request to the relevant supreme court chief prosecutor, hours after he briefed PM Alexis Tsipras over developments in the case.
Decisions to postpone two high-profile Siemens-related trials involving dozens of defendants, including foreign nationals being tried in absentia, because indictments were not translated has generated a firestorm of controversy and sharp criticism of the government.
The first trial that was postponed involves charges related to a 1990s-era contract for the digitization of then state-run telephony provider OTE’s land lines by Siemens.
The other trial postponed indefinitely has former PASOK minister Tassos Mantelis as the defendant. However, lack of translation wasn’t the reason for the delay in this case, rather it was the death of the chief justice in the trial.
Mantelis, who served as transport and telecoms minister in the late 1990s during the height of awarded state contracts to Siemens, has been charged with receiving hundreds of thousands of deutschmarks from the German electronics and engineering giant.
Mantelis has claimed that the money that found its way into his bank accounts served as a “campaign contribution” by Siemens. His trial began in November 2013 and had reached the testimony phase. A continuance was first ordered last September due to the judge’s illness.
