‘No threat’ to Novartis witnesses
The two prosecutors who decided last week to remove the protective status of two key witnesses in the Novartis case said that there was no indication that they had been the subject of intimidation or retaliation.
They also said that their credibility had been compromised and did not make a “substantial contribution” to the investigation into the practices of the pharmaceutical industry in the country.
The two prosecutors who examined the requests of former prime minister Antonis Samaras, Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras and former socialist minister Andreas Loverdos, who had been implicated in the case, found “no suspicion of intimidation or retaliation after a reasonable period of investigation and, in fact, the name of the witness (Ekaterini Kelesi) was unfortunately revealed.”
“We are of the opinion that there is no reason to maintain the protection measures that had been ordered,” was the conclusion of the assistant prosecutor for economic crime, Eleni Papadopoulou, who noted that despite the disclosure of the real name of the witness, which can be found with a simple search on the internet, no incident of intimidation or revenge has been reported.
The Novartis case, which broke during the tenure of the left-leaning SYRIZA government, involved accusations that the Swiss pharmaceutical giant paid bribes to public officials to increase its market share in Greece from 2006 to 2015.
SYRIZA officials, however, condemned the decision, arguing that it could undermine Greece’s efforts in fighting 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 testimony provided by the now-unprotected witnesses.
