New probe ordered into deputy prosecutor who cried foul over Novartis inquiry

Justice Minister Mihalis Kalogirou on Tuesday ordered a disciplinary investigation into a deputy prosecutor of the Supreme Court, who claimed there had been interventions in the Novartis inquiry.

Ioannis Angelis, who had been supervising the corruption prosecutors investigating the alleged bribery case involving 10 prominent politicians and the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, resigned on January 7.

In two leaked reports sent to his boss, Supreme Court prosecutor Xeni Dimitriou, he claimed that a decision had been made to implicate the politicians in question and that an unnamed politician was interfering in the probe.

His decision to step down also followed a media report alleging that he and a group of other prosecutors were offered information about a former Greek minister during a meeting with American judicial officials in Vienna in November 2018, but that he refused to accept the information, dismissing it as the product of wiretapping. Angelis had denied the story.

This latest investigation is added to yet another one ordered earlier in the day by Dimitriou into Angelis' allegations, which had initially been dismissed.

Of 10 Greek politicians originally implicated in the alleged scandal, only former Socialist health minister Andreas Loverdos has been charged.

The probe has failed to turn up evidence of illicit payments to politicians.