Ex prosecutor accuses former minister of costing the state

In her second day of testimony before a parliamentary committee probing possible political interference in the Novartis bribery investigation, Greece’s former top corruption prosecutor Eleni Raikou on Wednesday claimed that former alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos had cost the Greek state millions of euros as well as seeking to intervene in the probe. 

Papangepoulos’ purported insistence on turning the probe in a political direction meant that an investigation into 118 million euros worth of bank transfers allegedly made to doctors and others by the Swiss firm did not move forward, Raikou reportedly told the House panel.

The former minister was "not interested in the Novartis scandal but in setting up politicians,” she reportedly said. 

In a statement, government spokesman Stelios Petsas remarked that claims by Raikou about Papangelopoulos revealed a “shady parastate focused on annihilating the political rivals of SYRIZA.”