The news that the Ministry of Justice is examining the reintroduction of regulations requiring judicial cases involving political figures to be expedited – with investigations completed within two months and court proceedings beginning within another two months – was revealed on Parapolitika 90.1’s “Apenanti Mikrofona” show with hosts Vassilis Skouris and Sotiris Xenakis by Ioanna Mandrou.
Specifically, when the journalist was asked about yesterday’s statement by Mitsotakis urging the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to expedite its investigation regarding the implicated MPs, Ms. Mandrou conveyed information from judicial sources indicating that while prosecutors themselves very much want the procedures to move quickly – as there is a risk of statute of limitations expiring for some offenses – the assessment is that it’s not easy to complete these procedures in record time. They point to estimates that this entire package requires considerable time.
Ioanna Mandrou on OPEKEPE: The case files contain incriminating evidence that must be investigated
“And they emphasize this for two reasons,” she explains:
“First, because many of those charged with misdemeanors face potential statute of limitations expiry on one hand, but on the other hand, the case files contain incriminating evidence that must be investigated. Cases like Skrekas and Kefalogianni fall into this category. Also, others may again involve misdemeanors requiring investigation, and there are sub-cases that are simpler with weaker evidence, which could potentially be resolved earlier.
In any case, this timeframe for closing this chapter – determining who will be prosecuted and who won’t – points to a process requiring several months. Six, seven, eight, ten… It doesn’t distinguish each individual case.
This translates for most of them into election time, because we are now in a long pre-election period. According to judicial sources, they will not have cleared things up with Justice”.
At this point, Ioanna Mandrou reminded that “until 2019, there was a law that has since been abolished, which stated that when a political figure becomes involved in a justice matter, certain tight deadlines were set to clarify the situation. Two months to complete the investigation and another two months to go to trial, in order to either be convicted or acquitted. This regulation was abolished in 2019, when historic changes were made to the penal code”.
Additionally, she revealed that according to her information “the regulation is occupying the government and the Ministry of Justice regarding whether it should return in order to set time limits, so these case files can move as quickly as possible to clarify the landscape accordingly”.
