Judges deny minister’s wish
The Supreme Court and Justice Minister Haris Kastanidis are on a collision course after the country’s top judges rejected for a second time the politician’s request that justice Nikos Zagorianos, who was in charge of the investigation into the Siemens cash-for-contracts scandal, be suspended for dereliction of duty. The decision by the court’s supreme judicial council, made up of 11 judges, appears to have enraged Kastanidis, who accused the justices of going beyond their remit. Sources said yesterday that Kastanidis believes the judges should only have decided whether a suspension was warranted or not, rather than carrying out their own examination into the evidence supporting the minister’s request. A report by a top Supreme Court official late in 2009 suggested that Zagorianos, who was removed from the Siemens probe last year, was responsible for a number of mistakes that compromised his investigation.
