Prosecutor requests fresh eyes on Novartis case

A Supreme Court prosecutor has requested that the Novartis bribery case be assigned to an appeals court magistrate who would be responsible for examining it in its entirety, including charges against politicians, doctors, executives of the pharmaceutical firm and others.

Should Vassilis Pliotas’ request be accepted, as expected, this would take the case out of the hands of corruption prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki, who is currently under investigation for her handling of allegations against 10 prominent politicians.

She would have to hand over all of her files, including those on former health ministers Adonis Georgiadis, Dimitris Avramopoulos and Andreas Loverdos, whose cases are still pending.