A particularly important development comes from the field of Justice regarding the Novartis case, which overturns the narrative of the Southwest on the alleged «collusion». Specifically, criminal prosecution for the offence of breach of duty was brought by the Athens Prosecutor's Office of the Athens First Instance Court to the Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Ioannis Angelis, because he refused to receive information from the Americans in 2018 concerning the account of a relative of one of the political figures involved in the Novartis case, namely a former minister of the New Democracy.
This is a development that reverses the facts of the case so far, as Angelis is a key witness against the prosecution former corruption prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki and of former Deputy Minister of Justice, Dimitris Papangelopoulos, while he had also testified to the Pre-Investigation Committee set up by the Southwest.
More specifically, the criminal prosecution concerns the refusal of Ioannis Angelis to receive evidence from the Americans (in contrast to the then Corruption Prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki and had come into conflict with the then Corruption Prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki who wanted to receive it) during a trip of the then Corruption Prosecutors to Vienna in December 2018 in Vienna, when he was the supervisor of the corruption prosecutors who were also investigating political figures.
The data concerned an account of a relative of one of the political figures under investigation in the Novartis case. Ioannis Angelis allegedly refused to receive the evidence because he considered that it should have been received through Eurojust. Immediately after the trip to Vienna, the then Corruption Prosecutor had informed the Supreme Court.
Against Ioannis Angelis a case file had been formed for five offences. In particular for «misappropriation of an official document», for «copying programs from a computer without the consent of the Corruption Prosecutor», for «violation of personal data» and for «breach of duty». For all of these except the offence of breach of duty, the prosecutor Spyros Pappas filed the case.
The question that now arises and that Mr Angelis should answer is why it refused to receive the details of a relative of a former ND minister. As well as whether the procedures for obtaining this information through Eurojust were initiated or whether the whole case was left there. However, the fact that the Americans had evidence and specifically an account for a relative of a former minister of the Southwest, refutes the narrative of the Southwest about collusion and that allegedly the whole case was set up by the government of the time, as this argument does not even stand up to common sense.
It should be noted that the Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Ioannis Angelis, in a memorandum he had filed with the Prosecutor's Office had denied the allegations against him for the contested elements.
However, the Prosecutor's Office of the Athens Court of Appeal will have the final say on the development of the case.
