And justice for all or just a few?
The ruling by Germany’s highest judicial court yesterday, which overturned two earlier decisions to allow the extradition to Greece of Michalis Christoforakos (the former CEO of Siemens Hellas, who faces money laundering and bribery charges in this country but fled to Germany when the scandal broke) underscores the grave responsibilities of those who have dealt with the case. Judicial authorities here in Greece should punish their officials who have shown negligence or a lack of professionalism in pursuing the case. At the same time, we must seriously examine the obvious structural problems of the Greek judicial system, which so often have prevented it from investigating and prosecuting major cases. People are increasingly frustrated by seeing judicial officials drag their feet when it comes to launching any serious inquiry into major scandals. What is more, the slow-moving process has rarely resulted in any convictions of those who are implicated in the alleged crimes.
