Council of State

As prosecutors make the final preparations for a criminal trial against dozens of members of Golden Dawn, the Council of Appeals Court Judges on Tuesdsay ruled to extend by an additional six months the pretrial custody of Giorgos Roupakias, a self-professed member of the neofascist party who is charged with the murder of leftist rapper Pavlos Fyssas.

There was a time when the Greek justice system was shackled to the whims of political parties as appointments and often decisions were dictated by central party headquarters.

Today, the judiciary may have rid itself of this bane but it is still at risk of becoming politicized as judges are increasingly sensitive to the impulses of the public mind and the overall political atmosphere.

The Council of State on Friday gave the government two months to abide by a previous ruling ordering it to restore armed forces and police wages to the same level as in 2012, when they were cut by 10 percent.

The coalition has so far failed to adopt the ruling, which would cost some 500 million euros, including back pay.

Development Minister Nikos Dendias on Friday expressed his aggravation at a decision by the country's highest administrative court to impose a temporary ban on a law allowing shops to open on Sundays, the latest in a series of court rulings that essentially reverse reforms that Greece has pledged to international creditors.

The government could soon come under further pressure to restore the wages of members of the emergency services and armed forces as a panel of judges at the Council of State is looking into the coalition’s failure to abide by a court ruling last year ordering it to reverse the 2012 reductions.

Attention in Turkey will now focus on the Sept. 12 elections for members of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), which oversees appointments and dismissals and conducts investigations in the judiciary.

Turkey’s top government officials will be absent at the opening of the judicial year, in protest at the scheduled speech of the Union of Bar Associations head The opening of the judicial year on Sept.

President-elect Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan is handing over the chairmanship of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu today (Aug. 27), at an extraordinary congress taking place in Ankara. The next step will be to take over the presidency from Abdullah Gül on Aug.

The man responsible for identifying corruption in the civil service on Tuesday accused politicians of canceling out their own rules after it was revealed that the government passed a last-minute amendment in defiance of a court order for seven tavernas on Schinias beach, northeast of Athens, to be knocked down.

The family of a young Istanbul architect who committed suicide in 2010 after being subjected to police torture has submitted an individual complaint to Turkey’s Constitutional Court, after the Council of State approved a decision that rejected the relatives’ appeal regarding “insufficient punishment for police officers.”