Financial prosecutors to give evidence of interference
Financial prosecutors Spyros Mouzakitis and Grigoris Peponis are due to give evidence on Thursday as part of a Supreme Court investigation into their claims of interference in their work.
Mouzakitis and Peponis made the request in writing Tuesday, only four days after the Supreme Court had closed the probe before either had submitted any evidence. However, the court agreed to give the prosecutors until Thursday to submit any evidence they may have that backs their claims they were pressured.
Supreme Court deputy prosecutor Fotis Makris said the pair would have to submit ?full and detailed written explanations.? Sources told Kathimerini that Peponis and Mouzakitis were prepared to do that and that they would name the people they believed were attempting to influence their work.
Peponis and Mouzakitis had recently launched investigations into a number of high-profile cases, including major tax evasion, claims that tax officials did not collect fines on fuel trading firms, banks? funding of Alter TV, allegations of benefits cheating and claims of fiddled statistics at the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT).
They were also investigating the continued financing of indebted political parties by banks, claims of corruption at tax offices and major tax evasion cases.
Yiannis Kapeleris, who resigned on Monday as the Finance Ministry?s general secretary for tax and customs after Peponis charged him with breach of faith, Tuesday denied that he waived fines on some 3,500 gas stations for illegal fuel trading.
