“None of us will forget July 23, 2018. And much more those who lost their own people. The announcement of the decision of the first instance court, six years later, brought back memories and caused reactions”, wrote Pavlos Marinakis in his post on the internet.
The government spokesman continued:
“Listening and reading what is being said and written, I feel the need to submit some thoughts to you:
Firstly, holding any public office it is impermissible to comment on judicial decisions.
In our country, there is a separation of powers, and since 2019, the Maximos Palace does not have a “Department of Justice”, as formally denounced by a former Minister of Justice of the SYRIZA government.
The Judiciary – and only it – is responsible for issuing decisions and imposing penalties.
Secondly, the Criminal Code passed in 2019 by the then SYRIZA government, shortly before it left power, was applied in this particular case. Why; Because necessarily, every defendant is tried on the basis of the most lenient legislation that has been in force – even for one day – from the time of his act until the irrevocable adjudication of the decision. Therefore, the changes made by the ND government to the Criminal Code – which the opposition did not vote for – both during the first four-year period, and during the second, a few months ago, were legally impossible to apply to the case in question.
“With the last amendment of the Criminal Code”
In fact, with the amendments of recent years, a number of provisions related to arson with intent or negligence have been tightened, while, at the same time, with the latest amendment of the Criminal Code, a completely different legal regime applies to the imposition of misdemeanor penalties.
Third, the Judiciary has legal tools that it can use if it deems it necessary to do so. Even if this happens, because, I repeat, the application of the most lenient law is mandatory and the acts in question have been characterized as misdemeanors in their entirety, they are statute-barred in July 2026, i.e. after 8 years have passed since they were committed. Therefore, depending on the decisions of the Greek Courts regarding the exercise of appeal or annulment, everything afterwards must be done very quickly because there is a serious risk of limitation.
In conclusion, the executive and legislative powers have no possibility even to comment on the decisions of the judiciary. They must, however, introduce and legislate provisions which give the necessary legal weapons to a court to issue just decisions, as it deems appropriate.
Mr. Marinakis underlined: “We will continue to do the self-evident thing, that is, not to instrumentalize judicial decisions and not to judge them as they see fit. In any case, the silence of those who, depending on the case, turn into lay judges and today do not even have half a word to say about the legal framework under which this decision was issued, is quite impressive.”
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