Touloupaki’s apology to the Special Court

By Ioanna Mandrou

The prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki, who is on trial together with the former minister (deputy at the Ministry of Justice) Dimitris Papagelopoulos, spoke in her testimony before the Special Court about the merciless war she received when she handled the relevant investigations for political figures for the Novartis case.

The prosecutor talked about harsh attacks she received from politicians, the media and also disciplinary proceedings for her handling of the Novartis case, supporting the legality of her actions and stressing that she sent the relevant case file with the ten politicians based on the Law on responsibility of ministers. At the same time, he emphasized that during her days the case was archived for seven of the ten politicians, while for the others the case files were handled by the current financial prosecutor, Mr. Christos Bardakis.

Attacks and War

“Let me be allowed, he stressed, observing what has happened, that this is the most coordinated attempt to exterminate judicial officials in the post-political history of our country. Since then, a merciless war began by the political figures under investigation, with the strong support of their parties and the active support of the media”. And she added, referring to attacks and behind-the-scenes moves aimed, as she said, at removing her case file.

“As we continued our investigation against Novartis and the political figures, we became both investigated and audited for our prosecutorial investigation by the criminally investigated political figures. There was not a day when we did not give explanations either to the Areopagus or to the Parliament. At the same time, systematic efforts were being made to remove the case from the Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, its natural judge, and to pass it into other hands. After the failure of this venture, the only way to remove the file was to abolish the Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and establish a new Service, which included the Novartis file “overnight”.

Novartis

Archive for the seven

Eleni Touloupaki then referred to the filing of the case for seven of the ten involved politicians.

“So as long as we had the case file and despite the daily threats and pressures we received, we completed the investigation for 7 out of 10 political figures judging that they should be placed in the Archive. For 2 of the remaining persons, our investigation was not completed and was continued by Mr. Bardakis, while for the third we judged that there were sufficient indications for criminal prosecution.

Our impartiality and the absence of any interference in our work is confirmed by the fact that, on the one hand, the 7 filings took place before the 2019 elections, and on the other hand, the criminal prosecution against a political person was brought after the elections, with the permission of new Parliament – new Government. In other words, our handling proves that we did not leave any room for political exploitation of our actions”.

Category – Relations with Papagelopoulos

Regarding the accusation she is facing, that is, that she did not send to the Parliament, based on the law on the responsibility of ministers of KINAL, a complaint about the then Minister of Health, Panagiotis Kouroumplis, the public prosecutor, apologizing, denied it, saying that she sent them, when she became aware of it without to delay.

“In conclusion, he emphasized, when I first receive knowledge of these reports, I immediately send them to the Parliament. I received knowledge at the end of January 2018 and 5-2-2018, I am sending them to the Parliament without delay”.

“In any case, he underlined, these documents had not even been perceived as impeachment petitions by my predecessors”, while he added that as soon as he became aware of the content of the petitions, he formed the opinion that they had no incriminating content and had rightly not been sent to the Parliament from the previous ones in the Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
Regarding her relations with the on-trial minister Dimitris Papagelopoulos, who is facing a charge of moral turpitude in her offense (abuse of power), Mrs. Touloupaki denied that she had any other relations, beyond purely official ones.

In particular, referring to the fact that she did not receive any suggestions or prompts for the handling of cases from Mr. Papagelopoulos, she emphasized.

“Mr. Papagelopoulos presents himself as the moral author of my actions. I want to declare to you that I had no dialogue with any politician. But I was in a constant internal dialogue with my conscience and with God.”

The last chapter of apology

The prosecuting officer on trial concluded her statement with emphasis.

“Today is the culmination of an uphill journey. A personal Golgotha ​​that started 4 years ago. A period during which they called me and my associates a “criminal gang”, a “criminal ring”, while I received daily threats such as “going to jail” and being “scratched”. We woke up one day to find out that everyone in the prosecutor’s office had nicknames like Mrs. Frosso, Gova, Undertaker, Traveller, Rasputin, etc., which we had never heard because they had never been said, presenting a decadent image of the judiciary, which as it turned out was only in the perception. of those who invented them… Characteristic of my personal targeting throughout this time is that strangers broke into my residence twice, taking only files and notes from my office, sending me a clear message of the danger I was running to my investigations , as a Corruption Prosecutor.

I primarily and my colleagues secondarily received the greatest possible referral. I wonder if there are any more derogatory accusations than those that have been attributed to me. We appeared to blackmail witnesses, submit to them the content of their statements, fabricate evidence and prosecute 10 political figures.”

And he concluded, “let me say, observing what has happened, that this is the most coordinated attempt to exterminate judicial officials in the post-political history of our country. Also, the course of this case proves something else equally important. That there are judges not only in Berlin, but also in Athens. They are the judges of the Supreme Judicial Council, who, despite the drums of slander and distortion of the truth, decided, passing on to you the final baton for the definitive cleansing of this tragedy, not only for me and my colleagues who were unjustly accused, but also for the Greek justice as a whole, which was seriously injured by the true skevoria”.

Mrs. Touloupaki also referred extensively to the judicial path and the positions she served from time to time, as well as how she was chosen as the head of the Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
Before her apology, her lawyer Yiannis Mantzouranis complained that on the day of her apology, a disciplinary action was announced, stressing that “some people do not even respect her apology, they are still chasing her” adding that “this harms the prestige of justice”.

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