The head of Athens Prosecutor’s Office ordered the criminal prosecution of the leading corruption prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki for a series of offenses, including abuse of power. Touloupaki was been investigating the Novartis bribery scandal.
The corruption prosecutors will face charges of dereliction of duty, making false statements and breach of personal data in connection to her investigation into the case, in which reportedly 10 politicians were initially incriminated.
Charges refer to one felony and five misdemeanors..
The order came from the deputy prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Evangelos Zaharis who investigated Touloupaki’s handling of the Novartis probe.
After this development, Touloupaki is expected to be replaced by a another official selected by the top court’s Supreme Judicial Council.
Touloupaki is the second official taken to justice for investigating the Novartis scandal, after former SYRIZA deputy justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos.
Last month, Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis had threatened to bring Touloupaki to jail.
PS Greece seems to be the first among democratic countries in the world that prosecutes a prosecutor investigating a bribery scandal for which the Novartis made a 350-million-euro settlement with the US authorities. Read more here.
