Ioannis Angelis

Greece's Supreme Court has turned down a request by deputy prosecutor Ioannis Angelis for a fellow deputy prosecutor and a former prosecutor to be taken off a probe concerning the alleged bribery scandal involving Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis.

Deputy Supreme Court Prosecutor Dimitrios Dasoulas, who currently serves as chief prosecutor following the retirement of Xeni Dimitriou, has ordered an investigation into claims by fellow deputy prosecutor Ioannis Angelis that there were political interventions in the Novartis inquiry and into criticism by politicians implicated in the probe of its judicial handling.

The government official that supposedly influenced the investigation of alleged bribes paid by Novartis to politicians is Alternate Justice Minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos, former conservative premier Antonis Samaras claimed in an interview with the Parapolitika newspaper that was published on Saturday.

A Supreme Court official who has challenged the handling of an investigation into claims that several high-ranking opposition politicians had taken bribes from a Swiss pharmaceutical firm, has requested that his testimony before colleagues be postponed until after Greece's general elections on July 7.

Deputy Supreme Court prosecutor Ioannis Angelis on Thursday filed a request to have two high-ranking judicial officials barred from an investigation into the handling by judicial authorities of the Novartis bribery case.

Just two days before he will be deposed regarding his charges of a botched handling of the Novartis kickbacks case by his colleagues and of governmental meddling in the case, Deputy Supreme Court Prosecutor Ioannis Angelis has in a 10-page report requested that lawsuits filed by former PM Antonis Samaras, former Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos, and European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos (

In a new twist in the ongoing probe into the Novartis case, Deputy Supreme Court Prosecutor Ioannis Angelis submitted a report to the court's prosecutor's office calling for the reopening of three criminal lawsuits filed by three prominent politicians who were implicated in the alleged bribery investigation.

The allegations made by Deputy Supreme Court Prosecutor Ioannis Angelis over government involvement in the Novartis case - coming after similar claims in the past by other senior judicial officials - must be followed up until the matter is resolved.

Corruption prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki on Friday brought charges of money laundering and bribing a politician against four unidentified suspects in the ongoing Novartis probe.
The four suspects, who are not state officials, will also face charges of breach of faith against the state.

The allegations by a deputy Supreme Court prosecutor that a government official influenced an investigation into an alleged bribery scandal involving the Swiss drugs manufacturer Novartis will be investigated by the next Parliament, conservative New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Thursday.