Parl’t votes on proposal for probe into ex-minister

Late on Tuesday night MPs were poised to approve the creation of a parliamentary committee to probe possible crimes committed by former alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos in connection with the Novartis investigation. 

The panel is to determine whether Papangelopoulos sought to incriminate political rivals of leftist SYRIZA by suggesting that they were paid bribes by the Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis. 

In a speech in Parliament ahead of the vote, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras accused the conservative government of "a conscious attempt to criminalize political life" and of "a cowardly bid for revenge." 

Expressing his full support for Papangelopoulos, Tsipras said his former minister had been made a scapegoat "because he had the courage to highlight the Novartis scandal." 

The former premier also lashed out at the government for the...