Novartis

Following a new turn in the investigation into an alleged bribery scandal involving Swiss drugmaker Novartis, which has fuelled debate about the procedures being followed by the Greek judiciary, police on Thursday raided the home of a former protected witness in the probe. 

Police on Thursday raided the house of a former protected witness in an alleged bribery scandal involving Swiss drugmaker Novartis, as part of an ongoing investigation, according to judicial sources.

In a new major twist to the ongoing investigation into an alleged bribery scandal involving Novartis, a former protected witness suggested that the charges of accepting bribes that have now been brought against him are politically motivated, casting aspersions on the procedures being followed by the judiciary.

A former protected witness in an alleged bribery scandal involving Novartis told Skai TV on Wednesday night that the charges of accepting bribes that have now been brought against him are politically motivated.

One of the three protected witnesses in a kickbacks investigation involving Swiss pharma giant Novartis was slapped with a travel ban and had his passport confiscated after reportedly trying to flee the country with his family on Monday night, Greek media said, citing judicial sources.

It became apparent in February, when specific political rivals of the government were proscribed as part of the investigation into the alleged Novartis bribery scandal, that the SYRIZA-Independent Greeks government would try to emulate a tactic of totalitarian governments - eliminating anyone whom it feared could be part of a credible and effective counterweight to itself.

Greece's former top corruption prosecutor Eleni Raikou has submitted a suit accusing her colleague Eleni Touloupaki, who succeeded her as corruption prosecutor, of violating the secrecy of testimony and slandering both her and her husband in relation to the Novartis health scandal probe.

A Thessaloniki appeals court has declared a former pharmaceuticals top manager and two doctors innocent of the crimes of bribery and bribe-taking, state run news agency ANA-MPA reported on Friday.

Andreas Lykourentzos, a former health minister who was named in a prosecutor's report as one of 10 politicians who had allegedly received kickbacks from Swiss pharma giant Novartis, has written to Parliament Speaker Nikos Voutsis asking for the creation of a special committee to examine the charges against him.

Greece's parliament has no jurisdiction to investigate the role of ten politicians in alleged bribes by Swiss drugmaker Novartis, lawmakers ruled on Saturday, in a controversy which has further polarized a deeply divided political landscape.