Relevant prosecutor extends anonymity to 2 witnesses whose claims triggered years of investigation against 10 politicians

A relevant magistrate in the financial crimes prosecutor's office on Tuesday extended, by two years, the protected status for two controversial witnesses who had leveled allegations against 10 top office-holders, including past prime ministers, of receiving kickbacks from Novartis' Greek subsidiaries.

The allegations, initially by a trio of anonymous witnesses, were investigated for years by then financial crimes top prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki, with results nevertheless turning up no corroboration or any evidence presented to back up the claims.

The opposition to the previous Tsipras government between 2015 and 2019 decried the investigation as a "political witch hunt", one aimed at impugning several of leftist SYRIZA party's foremost opponents and critics.

To date the investigation of the 10 politicians has resulted in seven cases shelved, another two inactive and only one politician, former PASOK minister Andreas Loverdos, officially summoned to offer testimony as a suspect. In the latter case, in fact, Loverdos purposely avoided making use of Parliamentary immunity clauses, in order to testify.

Months later, no action has been taken even in his case, either towards shelving the probe or a recommending an indictment based on evidence.

The furor surrounding investigation went from being the "biggest scandal in Greece's history", as one SYRIZA deputy minister and former prosecutor opined at the time, to essentially a judicial fiasco, whereby the former investigating prosecutor Touloupaki and her close associates face possible disciplinary action for years unproductive probes based on still unsubstantiated claims by three, and then two anonymous witnesses.

The minister in question, Dimitris Papaggelopoulos, now faces a separate...