Prosecution

A prosecutor has demanded up to nine years in jail for a man who attacked and injured a 23-year-old woman on a public bus in Istanbul for wearing shorts.

Chief corruption prosecutor Eleni Raikou on Thursday ordered a search of the company offices of Stavroula Nikolopoulou, the spouse of BoG governor Yannis Stournaras, as well as the couple's home.

Judges and prosecutors are to return to work in the coming days with a mountain of cases, many that have dragged on for months - if not years - to push through the slow Greek court system.

After elections to appoint new judges and prosecutors this coming Saturday, courts are expected to get back to work in earnest.

Albanian law experts are expressing alarm over what they call "MPs' negligence" in providing constitutional transitory arrangements designed to enable the normal work of current law institution until new ones are created.

Public prosecutor Evsevia Kormikari has asked a council of prosecutors to reject an appeal by Greek-Cypriot pop singer Michalis Hatzigiannis not to stand trial over charges of failing to declare 5 million euros in his tax declarations during the 2010-2011 period.

The appellate specialised criminal court ruled on Tuesday that the controversial mayor of the Bulgarian village of Galiche, Tsenko Chokov, is to remain in custody.

At the end of May, Chokov was detained in a specialised police operation on charges of heading an organised crime group involved in usury, racketeering, kidnapping, setting property on fire, inflicting physical injuries.

A mission of European Commission experts will arrive in Sofia in late June to analyse the performance of Bulgarian prosecutors in a bid to give a boost to the country's efforts to reform its judicial system.

Bulgarian prosecuting authorities will demand that the mayor of the village of Galiche, Tsenko Chokov, should remain in custody after being arrested in a police operation on Thursday.

Chokov has already been indicted on charges of heading an organized criminal gang, the Chief Prosecutor's spokesperson, Rumyana Arnaudova, has told private NOVA TV broadcaster.

Reza Zarrab, the arrested Turkish businessman of Iranian origin in the United States, is being bussed from one place to the other, not flown. From Miami to New York, he is being transferred with several stops in American federal prisons. This must be huge psychological pressure on him. 

Macedonia's chief Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva on Thursday said her work was far from over and that her team was investigating more cases of alleged crime.

"We are here and we are working? I believe that justice will prevail," Janeva told a press conference attended by several EU ambassadors in Skopje.