Georgiades and Avramopoulos files on the Novartis scandal on file

The archiving of the pleadings in relation to the Minister of Development, Adonis Georgiadis and the former Commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos who was among the politicians allegedly involved in bribery in the Novartis case, decided the Financial Prosecution Service.

After five years since the start of the investigations into the illegal practices of Novartis in our country, in which a total of 10 politicians were implicated, the head of the Financial Prosecutor's Office, an appellate prosecutor, Christos Bardakis, after studying and evaluating the provisions of the assistant public prosecutors, ruled that the files on both politicians for whom the investigation had been pending for a long time, causing their strong opposition, should be closed and filed.

Specifically, according to information, all three assistant investigators who handled the material of the investigation and evaluated it, unanimously supported the archiving of the relevant file. The same position was subsequently supported both by the head of the Public Prosecutor's Office, Christos Bardakis, and by Panagiotis Kapsimalis, the prosecutor who undertook the final study of the file.

However, as far as Adonis Georgiades is concerned, one of the prosecutors was of the opinion that the permission of the Parliament should be requested and the minister should be invited to explain himself. However, this position was not supported by the other two supervisors, neither by the head of the Financial Prosecutor's Office nor by the person supervising the investigation, Mr. Bardakis and Mr. Kapsimalis respectively.

In his statements, immediately after the announcement of the decision to file the case file concerning him, the Minister of Development, Adonis Georgiades said:

The Loverdos case is open

Now, nine out of 10 files have been closed, leaving only the file on Andreas Loverdo, MP of Kinal and former minister. The case of Loverdos is in Justice and he has asked to be cleared of his case.

It is noted that the competent investigator took a position in favour of the statute of limitations in the whole case, however, after the competent prosecutor expressed a contrary opinion, the case is pending before the Judicial Council.