Antonis

A prosecutor on Thursday shelved legal suits lodged against government officials and prosecutors by former prime minister Antonis Samaras, ex-finance minister Evangelos Venizelos and former health minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, now European migration commissioner, over bribery claims involving Swiss drugs firm Novartis.

The long-running saga of a parliamentary investigation into a bribery scandal involving the Swiss drugs manufacturer Novartis will enter its final phase on Friday, as the House will meet to discuss and vote on the final committee report.

New Democracy and the Movement for Change, the newly-established center-left party, are on the same page with respect to key issues, the vice president of the conservative opposition, Adonis Georgiadis, said Wednesday.

Former health minister Dimitris Avramopoulos on Thursday said that he will not respond to a summons to appear before a special parliamentary committee investigating allegations that several high-ranking former officials took bribes from drugs firm Novartis.

Former conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras will not be appearing next week before a parliamentary inquiry into allegations that several high-raking ex-officials received bribes from drugs firm Novartis.

In a letter addressed to the chairman of the committee, leftist SYRIZA MP Theodoros Dritas, Samaras said that he has "no intention" of attending next Tuesday's session.

Former conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras has accused Greece's leftist-led government of using the Novartis bribery case to smear the reputations of its political rivals in a campaign that amounts to an "unprecedented attack on independent institutions and the rule of law."

The main conservative opposition party New Democracy on Wednesday submitted to Parliament its proposal for the formation of an investigative committee to probe whether former health ministers Panayiotis Kouroublis and Andreas Xanthos, as well as Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis, are guilty of breaches of faith. 

Journalist Costas Vaxevanis was arrested on Monday following a legal suit lodged against him by former conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras for defamation.

Shortly before his arrest, an appeals court in Athens had exonerated him over another defamation suit against him brought by Lina Nikolopoulou, the wife of Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras.

Bomb disposal experts were dispatched to the Ambelokipi police precinct just north of central Athens on Monday afternoon to take control of a hand grenade handed in by a citizen, who claimed he had found it on the street.

The journalist Costas Vaxevanis was arrested on Monday following a legal suit lodged against him by former conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras for defamation.

Vaxevanis had been at the Athens appeals court for the hearing of another legal suit against him brought by Lina Nikolopoulou, the wife of Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras.