Parliamentary immunity

The Parliament's Constitutional Revision Committee completed its work on Friday and lawmakers will vote on the proposed revisions of articles and sections of the Constitution on November 25.
The final vote on the articles under revision will be preceded by a five-day debate in the plenary (November 18-22).

Centre-Left Movement for Change MP and former health minister Andreas Loverdos, an associate professor of constitutional law at Panteio University, will be the first politician to testify as a suspect in the Novartis kickbacks case.

With one of its most prominent MPs, Andreas Loverdos, about to testify as a suspect in the Novartis case if his parliamentary immunity is lifted, the centre-left Movement for Change is charging that the entire affair is a conspiracy staged jointly by SYRIZA and the Karamanlis faction of New Democracy.

Albania's ruling Socialist Party has been criticised over a proposal that would oblige the prosecution to submit incriminating evidence to parliament before an MP can be stripped of immunity and arrested.

Critics say the change would undermine the rule of law and endow parliament with powers that should rest with only with the courts.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis yesterday requested that lawmakers lift his parliamentary immunity so he can face allegations of fraud as he fights to win support for a minority government.

Council of Europe Group of the Unified European Left Chairman Tiny Kox on Aug. 25 sent a letter to Turkish Parliament Spokesperson İsmail Kahraman urging "respect" for the rights of elected lawmakers currently in prison.

Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic on Monday sent a letter to Supreme State Prosecutor Ivica Stankovic, asking him to instruct the State Special Prosecution not to demand the detention of opposition leader Nebojsa Medojovic.

One day after the ad-hoc parliamentary committee made the decision to comply with the request of the prosecutor general for stripping Veselin Mareshki of his parliamentary immunity, the leader of Volya party announced he was giving up his immunity of his own accord, BNR reported.

Greek prosecutors on Thursday forwarded to Parliament three case files relating to two members of the current cabinet and former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.

In a move likely to alter an ongoing fierce debate over stripping the legislative immunity of members of Turkey's Kurdish problem-focused party, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has proposed parliament lift the immunity from prosecution for all lawmakers and collectively review the 506 outstanding dossiers.