The two prosecutors who decided last week to remove the protective status of two key witnesses in the Novartis case said there was no indication they had been intimidated or retaliated against.
They also said their credibility had been compromised and that they did not contribute “significantly” to the investigation into the practices of the country’s pharmaceutical industry.
The two prosecutors who investigated the claims of former prime minister Antonis Samaras, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras and former socialist minister Andreas Loverdos, who were involved in the case, found that “there was no suspicion of fear or reprisal after a reasonable investigation period and, indeed, the name of the witness (Ekaterini Kelesi) was inadvertently published.”
“We believe that there is no reason to maintain the protective measures ordered,” was the decision of the assistant prosecutor for economic crime, Eleni Papadopoulou, who noted that despite the real name of the to reveal a witness, which can be found with a simple search on the Internet, no incident of intimidation or retaliation has been reported.
The Novartis case, which broke during the tenure of the leftist SYRIZA government, involved allegations that the Swiss pharmaceutical giant paid bribes to public officials to increase its market share in Greece from 2006 to 2015.
SYRIZA officials, however, criticized the decision, arguing that it could undermine Greece’s efforts to fight corporate corruption by discouraging future whistleblowers. .
This development also leads to questions about the handling of evidence in the original case, raising the potential for further political and legal implications as Greek courts revisit the evidence given by the witnesses. is now unprotected.
