Pharmaceutical companies

Greece's chief corruption prosecutor, Eleni Touloupaki, and two of her close associates testified on Wednesday as suspects in an ongoing probe into the judicial handling of the Novartis bribery investigation, defending themselves on charges of abuse of power, dereliction of duty and making false statements.

Lawmakers in Parliament on Wednesday were debating a proposal submitted by 30 MPs of the ruling New Democracy party to expand the scope of an investigation into a former minister of the leftist SYRIZA administration.

A proposal was submitted to Parliament on Monday by some 30 MPs of the ruling New Democracy party asking for the expansion of the indictments against former alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos, who is accused of politically motivated interference in the investigation into the Novartis bribery case. 

A proposal by 30 government lawmakers will reportedly be submitted to the Greek Parliament Monday asking for the convening of a plenary session to discuss the expansion of the indictments against former alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos, who is accused of politically motivated interference in the investigation into the Novartis bribery case.

Greece's chief corruption prosecutor, Eleni Touloupaki, and two other officials in her service have been summoned as suspects in an ongoing probe into the judicial handling of the Novartis bribery case.

One the two key whistleblowers summoned to testify by the parliamentary committee conducting a preliminary inquiry into the handling of the Novartis bribery case by the former SYRIZA administration has repeated previous claims that he has no evidence against politicians, Kathimerini understands. 

The parliamentary committee conducting a preliminary inquiry into the Novartis case has been working quietly and effectively for months, without seeking the spotlight of publicity, and as such has started yielding results.

A delegation from Parliament's preliminary inquiry committee into the handling of the Novartis bribery case by the previous administration petitioned the Supreme Court on Thursday to look into the status of its three key whistleblowers.

The bench warrants ordering two witnesses to appear before a special parliamentary committee looking into the merit of claims of political interference in the Novartis bribery case were issued in line with legal principle, Supreme Court deputy prosecutor Panagiotis Brakoumatsos said in a letter to the committee on Thursday.

The second of two protected witnesses who had alleged that politicians had taken kickbacks from pharmaceutical giant Novartis did not keep a scheduled appointment with the parliamentary committee probing the handling of the Novartis scandal.