Bribery

After years of delays, a corruption prosecutor in Athens investigating an alleged bribery scandal involving Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has asked 15 executives of the parent company and its local branch to testify as suspects in the case.

Former premier Antonis Samaras is to testify before a Supreme Court prosecutor on Tuesday in an ongoing probe into the handling of bribery claims against high-ranking politicians.

Country leader of Oracle Romania Sorin Mindrutescu is accused by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) of bribe taking worth 869,413 euro from the representatives of some companies in the IT area, in return for making available favorable offers on the products marketed by Oracle, for the respective companies to participate in public tenders organized by various state institutions or wit

The prosecutor in the trial of suspects implicated in the Siemens cash-for-contracts scandal has called for 22 out of 54 defendants to be cleared of bribery charges and to only face charges of money laundering, citing the provisions of the country's new penal code.

The prosecutor, Eleni Skeparnia, noted that the new code changes the charge of active bribery to a misdemeanor.

The Novartis bribery case did not make the big bang some people had wished for, as it became quickly apparent that the political part of the affair was nothing more than a badly designed setup that seems to have already been forgotten.

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.

In the wake of his claims that judicial officials mismanaged and skewed the Novartis bribery probe, Deputy Supreme Court Prosecutor Ioannis Angelis issued a statement on Wednesday suggesting that an unnamed government official influenced the investigation. 

The Office of the Disciplinary Prosecutor, UDT, of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, HJPC, on Friday filed a disciplinary action against Milan Tegeltija, president of the HJPC, for "a serious violation of official duty, jeopardizing public trust in the impartiality and credibility of the judiciary".

Defending himself before a corruption prosecutor Thursday as a suspect in the alleged bribery scandal involving Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis, former Socialist health minister Andreas Loverdos described the case as a "political frame-up" and "a scourge for the country."

Former socialist health minister Andreas Loverdos on Friday was given an extension to prepare his defense before a corruption prosecutor in connection with the alleged bribery scandal involving the Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis.