With the OPEKEPE case recently in the spotlight, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office begins questioning suspects today regarding the case file concerning illegal subsidies granted by the organization during 2021-2022.
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OPEKEPE: Who crosses the European Prosecutor’s Office threshold today
Non-political figures involved in the case file recently submitted to Parliament requesting the lifting of immunity for 11 New Democracy MPs will appear before the European Public Prosecutor’s Office today, either in person or through their lawyers. These include former high-ranking officials of the organization, former presidents, directors and auditors of OPEKEPE, who have been called to provide explanations as suspects for committing breach of trust and other offenses. According to sources, they are expected to request a deadline to be informed about the case file formed against them and to prepare written explanations to submit before the appointed European prosecutors, Popi Papandreou and Dionysis Mouzakis, who are handling this particular case.
OPEKEPE: Friday explanations for 11 New Democracy MPs
On Friday, the 11 political figures – New Democracy MPs whose immunity was lifted by Parliament – will take the baton to provide unsworn explanations before the appointed European prosecutors. Summons for explanations have been issued for felony charges to Kostas Karamanlis and Katerina Papakosta, and for misdemeanor charges to Kostas Tsiaras, Notis Mitarakis, Dimitris Vartzopoulos, Maximos Senetakis, Theofilos Leontaridis, Kostas Skrekas, Vasilis Vasileiadis, Christos Boukoros and Yannis Kefalogiannis.
The political figures have been called to provide explanations as suspects – case by case – for acts of moral complicity in breach of trust, at felony and misdemeanor levels, moral complicity in computer fraud, and moral complicity in false certification. According to sources, some of them may not request a deadline and will submit their explanations the same day, as they have already been informed of the case file formed against them since it was transmitted to Parliament. After completing the explanations provided by the suspects, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office will decide whether to proceed with criminal prosecutions or archive the case files for both political and non-political figures.
Kovesi’s intervention and objections to the Floridis amendment
All this comes in the aftermath of a letter sent on May 19 from Chief European Prosecutor Laura Kovesi to Giorgos Floridis, expressing objections regarding the Justice Ministry’s amendment to expedite cases involving political figures. Ms. Kovesi expressed her objections to the proposed provision, noting it is incompatible with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office Regulation, as it assigns primary investigation of felonies to a special appeals investigator and sets strict time frames for completing investigations. The Justice Ministry noted that the proposed provisions do not affect the competence of appointed European prosecutors and only seek to expedite the process. However, Mr. Floridis proceeded with technical improvements to the provision to ensure no doubt exists that the founding law for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office undergoes no changes. In any case, the provision passed by Parliament stipulates that for cases involving political figures, misdemeanor cases are introduced for trial within three months before the Three-Member Misdemeanor Court, while felony investigations by appeals judges are completed within four months, and case introduction to hearings occurs with absolute priority within three months.
