ATHENS, July 23 — The Greek parliament has approved a criminal investigation into a former leftist minister over allegations that he pressured justice officials in a massive bribery scandal involving Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis.
A total of 177 rightwing and centre-left MPs in the 300-seat parliament voted late yesterday in favour of the prosecution of Dimitris Papangelopoulos, who was justice minister from 2015 to 2019, on eight charges including abuse of power and breach of duty.
The justice system must now determine whether the case should go before a special court.
The vote follows a parliamentary investigation that was opened after the rightwing government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis came to power last year, succeeding that of leftist premier Alexis Tsipras.
As well as politicians, some 100 doctors and about 30 high-ranking civil servants were allegedly caught up in the scandal.
Last month the Greek subsidiary of Novartis admitted paying kickbacks between 2012 and 2015 to employees of public hospitals to boost sales of its products, according to US federal prosecutors.
Novartis also admitted to bribing doctors in 2009 and 2010 to prescribe the company’s medications as part of an epidemiological study as a means of bulking up sales.
The alleged result was a commanding position for Novartis in the Greek healthcare market, allowing it to inflate its prices even as Greece was in the midst of a serious financial crisis.
Greek officials have estimated that the scheme cost the state some three billion euros (US$3.4 billion) in inflated prices. — AFP
