Year of the prosecutor has started
As more people testified yesterday in connection with the ongoing probe into allegations that a journalist had extorted money from a leading industrialist invoking the name of the November 17 terrorist group, a leading prosecutor said that 2003 «will be the year of the prosecutor.» The identities of the witnesses testifying before prosecutor Dimitris Papangelopoulos were kept secret. The probe has been going on for about two weeks. Meanwhile, Supreme Court prosecutor Evangelos Kroustallakis said rampant corruption will keep prosecutors busy this year. «The sewers have opened,» he told prosecutors at a function yesterday. «Our presence is necessary, and we must intervene. People have become fed up. ‘Are there no prosecutors?’ they ask. 2003 is the year of the prosecutor.» Last month, Kroustallakis issued a public call for a crusade against corruption, which the government proceeded to echo. «My remarks are on the same wavelength as those of the prime minister, and have no political connotations,» he stressed yesterday.
