Supreme Court of the United States

Despite being "completely unprecedented," Greece's triple elections for European Parliament, and regional and local government are "proceeding smoothly," Supreme Court President Vassilis Peppas said on Sunday afternoon.

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an appeal filed by its top prosecutor Xeni Dimitriou against the rejection of a furlough request for convicted November 17 terrorist Dimitris Koufodinas, paving the way for the likely approval of the request. 

A few hours later, Koufodinas ended a hunger strike he started on May 2 to protest the refusal of his request. 

There are 15 of them, ranging from the crime of murdering representatives of the highest state authorities to genocide. Sentences of 30 to 40 years in prison will be abandoned, so Serbian judges will have to choose between 20 years and life imprisonment when sentencing people so convicted.

The judiciary and the government are poised to pick the new Supreme Court Chief Justice and Prosecutor after the terms of Vasileios Peppas and Xeni Dimitriou, respectively, end on 30 June, at the end of the judicial year.

Peppas, age 71, whose term began in September, 2017, is retiring due to the age limit.

Former conservative prime minister Costas Karamanlis, Labour Minister Effie Achtsioglou and former socialist deputy premier Evangelos Venizelos were among the politicians who were accidentally appointed by a section of the Supreme Court as court representatives in the upcoming local, regional and European elections, due to a mix-up in the lists provided by the country's Bar Associations.

The Cypriot government is on the back foot Friday after a decision by the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the law implementing public sector salary cuts cuts following the financial crisis.
The legislation was passed in December 2012 on the grounds that the Cypriot economy was in an extraordinary situation and the cuts were seen as necessary to rectify state finances.

The wages of all judges, prosecutors and investigators will increase by 10% in 2019. The same increase also applies to all employees of the judiciary, reports Dnevnik. 

This was voted unanimously by the Plenum of the Supreme Judicial Council, only the chairman of the Supreme Court of Cassation Lozan Panov was absent.

Judges in Greek administrative courts will hold a general meeting on December 14 to discuss various planned changes in their sector as part of the government's constitutional revision.

"I am ashamed to face my colleagues," said the cleaner who was sentenced to 10 years in jail for forging an elementary school certificate to get a job at a publicly funded nursery in Volos, central Greece. The court ruling has provoked an uproar in the country.

A Supreme Court with a new conservative majority takes the bench as Brett Kavanaugh, narrowly confirmed after a bitter Senate battle, joins his new colleagues to hear his first arguments as a justice.