House committee on Novartis affair to hold first meeting on Monday

A Parliamentary committee tasked with conducting a preliminary investigation into a prosecutor's claims that two former prime ministers and eight ministers took bribes from Swiss drugs firm Novartis is due to convene for the first time on Monday.

The committee's job will be to review the prosecutor's reports, which is based on the anonymous testimony of three witnesses, in order to determine whether the 10 politicians named should be subject to a judicial investigation.

Its first order of business, however, will be to elect a chairman and then decide on a number of procedural issues, including whether minutes of each meeting should be released to the press or not.