Two seperate rows flare up over judicial cover-up allegations
Appeals court prosecutor Georgia Tsatani, who is under investigation for allegedly dropping a probe into an influential businessmen, on Wednesday went on the counteroffensive, sending a lengthy report to Supreme Court prosecutor Efterpi Koutzamani challenging a decision by the court to look into her actions.
Tsatani has claimed she shelved an investigation into Andreas Vgenopoulos for his part in the collapse of Cypriot lender Laiki Bank in 2013 after coming under pressure from Alternate Justice Minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos. The move was followed by a complaint from the Cypriot Justice Ministry, prompting the Supreme Court to investigate the handling of the case.
In her report on Wednesday, Tsatani called for the investigation into the Vgenopoulos probe to be extended to all the judicial officials involved in the case. Her request came in response to comments in Parliament the previous day by Papangelopoulos, who suggested that Tsatani had acted on her own initiative to drop the probe.
Meanwhile, another war of words heated up on Wednesday between Koutzamani and Defense Minister Panos Kammenos after the latter on Tuesday accused the Supreme Court prosecutor of covering up large-scale investigations into kickbacks.
Koutzamani responded by saying that all three of the probes mentioned by Kammenos had been forwarded to the European Union’s agency for cross-border judicial cooperation (Eurojust).
