ND, SYRIZA clash over Touloupaki prosecution

New Democracy and opposition SYRIZA exchanged barbs on Friday over the criminal prosecution of the country’s top corruption prosecutor, Eleni Touloupaki, for a series of serious alleged offenses related to her handling of the Novartis bribery probe.

The ruling conservatives said the decision to prosecute Touloupaki bolsters reports by ND and center-left Movement for Change (KINAL), which both call for the indictment of ex-alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos for allegedly seeking to influence the course of the Novartis investigation.

Speaking from the Ionian island of Kefalonia on Friday, opposition leader Alexis Tsipras said “any judge who dared investigate [ND’s] scandals is prosecuted… We will fight this.”

Justice Minister Kostas Tsiaras fired back, telling Skai radio that Tsipras was “judging events by the standards of his own administration.”