Former justice minister rejects intervention accusations in Novartis probe

Former alternate minister for justice Dimitris Papangelopoulos vehemently denied accusations by a former chief prosecutor for corruption that he had used his influence to intervene in her work on a number of cases, including the alleged Novartis bribery scandal.
Eleni Raikou, who resigned in 2017 claiming she had come under pressure from the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks administration over the Novartis affair, presented her evidence to a Supreme Court deputy prosecutor investigating judicial officials' handling of allegations that 10 high-ranking politicians and former officials had taken kickbacks from the Swiss pharmaceutical firm in the 2008-14 period.
According to sources, she told Supreme Court deputy prosecutor Lambros Sofoulakis that the former minister "exploited his political power, in the manner of a pimp," to "dictate how certain important cases needed to be...