Parliament body to decide on fate of Novartis probe

It remained unclear on Thursday whether the special Parliament committee which will be set up in early October to probe the possible mishandling of the alleged Novartis bribery case by the previous government will deem then that it is indeed the appropriate body to examine the case or if it will proceed to examine the testimonies of key figures and issue a finding.

According to the case file, former alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos intervened in the inquiry of the Novartis case in order to incriminate the government's political rivals, as was claimed in the depositions of former prime minister Antonis Samaras, former PASOK minister Evangelos Venizelos and Supreme Court deputy prosecutor Ioannis Angelis.

The special committee will be called upon to decide if Papangelopoulos' alleged interventions were part of his ministerial duties or not.

The...