In a climate of counter-complaints, the meeting of the Institutions and Transparency Committee of the Parliament developed and ended shortly after one in the afternoon. The parliamentarians of the coalition rejected the requests submitted by the opposition parties (SYRIZA, PASOK, KKE, New Left, Pleussi Eleftherias, “Niki”) after the Supreme Court’s decision on the wiretapping case.
The opposition had requested that the finding and the act of archiving be forwarded and that the prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Georgia Adelini, and the deputy prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Achilleas Zisis, who conducted the preliminary investigation, be summoned. The MPs of New Democracy opposed the acceptance of the requests. The opposition parties voted in favor of accepting the requests.
In the preceding debate, the MP of the New Democracy, Thanos Pleuris, described the request submitted by the opposition as “manifestly unconstitutional” and expressed his regret for those who have signed it, even though they serve in judicial science. He also mentioned that there is a process and if someone considers himself affected by the prosecutor’s order, he can present new evidence and have it evaluated by the Prosecutor’s Office.
“However, we cannot include the Prosecutor’s Office for reasons of impressing and blackmailing the Justice in this process”, said the ND MP and added that the summons of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court in matters related to a preliminary investigation carried out by the Supreme Court, it is against the separation of powers and if the relevant request were adopted, it would be as if the Parliament were above the judiciary.
In relation to the request to transmit the conclusion of the preliminary examination, Thanos Pleuris said that this is an open criminal trial and the Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates that only those who are parties to the trial have access to the file.
In the same climate, the general secretary of the National Democratic Party, Stavros Kalafatis, emphasized that the Parliament must ensure the separation of powers, “otherwise if the opinion prevails – in violation of the Constitution – that judicial officers come to account, we will go to other eras”. “It gives the impression that we are going for an institutional slide, inside and outside the courtroom, and that a way of intimidating judicial officers is being attempted. Attacking Justice is politically and institutionally inadmissible and if we let it happen, we go down another path. We don’t judge, it’s not our job to do so. There are judicial procedures that can evaluate the decisions of the Justice”, said Mr. Kalafatis.
The SYRIZA Member of Parliament Theodora Tzakri said that the summons to the hearing of the two prosecutors does not violate the principle of the separation of powers, since on the one hand it concerns the transparency of the judicial function and the general competence of the Parliament to supervise all the institutions of the state and on the other hand it does not increase in altering the judicial decision or interfering with it, given that there is neither a pending judicial process nor a final judicial decision or the will of the judicial council. “The Greek people and we, as their elected representatives, have the right, according to Article 10 of the ECHR, to receive knowledge of the content of the relevant documents of the case file,” said Mrs. Tzakri and added “we do not control the prosecutor’s judgment but we ask that let us be informed about its content and evaluate the legal arguments recorded” and “if the legal arguments are deemed insufficient, every citizen, and our Committee, has the right to criticize”.
“Half your cabinet was watched. When in one third of the monitoring EYP and Predator coincide, I invite you to read probability theory”, said PASOK MP Panagiotis Doudonis, addressing New Democracy and added: “when half of the cabinet, the head of the Armed Forces, was being monitored, and this “everything is fine”, this does not affect PASOK, the opposition or anyone else. It hurts your government and its moral and political base.”
Panagiotis Doudonis also said that “there are questions about Mrs. Adeilinis. Each era and its Papagelopoulos. Mr. Papagelopoulos was not a person, he was a position.” The PASOK MP also stated that “the overwhelming desire that led Mrs. Adeilinis to issue a press release also constitutes an acceptance on her part that her role enters the public discourse”, especially since she communicated her views in a particularly politicized way.
KKE Member of Parliament Nikos Karathanasopoulos said that the announcement of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, in relation to the conclusion on the wiretapping case, raises very serious questions about the investigation itself, about the evidence that emerged, but also about the conclusion and the validity of the conclusions, as they were codified by the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court. “This announcement reveals the so-called limits of the independent judiciary. Really, how independent is a judiciary that is chosen by the respective government? Let me remind you that Mrs. Adeilini was nominated by the Conference of Presidents to the Cabinet, to be chosen as a prosecutor of the Supreme Court, by 4/5 of the members who participated in the Conference”, said Nikos Karathanasopoulos.
“Reading the announcement of Ms. Adeilinis, the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, another judicial decision spontaneously came to mind, another announcement from a long time ago, after the murder of Grigoris Lambrakis: “no involvement of the government was discovered”, commented the MP of New Left Co. Anagnostopoulos. The MP requested that both the conclusion and the case file be forwarded, not so that the Parliament can check the decision of the Court, but as the Regulation states, to check the functioning of the procedure, how we reached the conclusion and what the case file contains. Regarding the political substance, however, Sia Anagnostopoulou said: “we know that ministers, the head of the Armed Forces, are being monitored by the EYP, we learn that the leader of the opposition party, Mr. Androulakis, journalists, the public and the people were being monitored. The same people were being watched by the Predator. I ask you, with this announcement by the Supreme Court, how can Greek citizens feel safe, when these surveillances were legal, for reasons of national security? Of Mr. Dendias? Of Mr. Hatzidakis? Of Mr. Floros? Of Mr. Androulakis? What are these reasons?’
“Niki” Member of Parliament Giorgos Rountas said that the whole issue highlights the existence of an illiberal, undemocratic and dangerous institutional framework, one that enables various government agencies, with unfounded pretexts of various risks, but also to other circles indirectly connected with government agencies, to implement illegal connections.
The president of Freedom of Navigation, Zoe Konstantopoulou, said that the investigation should be opened and at least Mr. Hatzidakis should be summoned and added: “we are not just asking for the report to be forwarded, we are not just asking for the case file to be forwarded, we are not just asking for the Ms. Adeilini and to give the necessary answers, as she must, according to the Regulation, which says that the Committee on Institutions can call the prosecutor of the Supreme Court for a hearing, on matters concerning operational issues of the Judiciary, for the purpose of enhancing transparency” . It is clear, said Zoe Konstantopoulou, that the intervention of the Justice and “in person, the prosecutor of the Supreme Court, to cover the government in the most violent wiretapping case of recent years”, creates very big issues. Mrs. Konstantopoulou said that the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court did not act in the context of either investigative or prosecutorial duties, because the press release she issued is neither an investigative, prosecutorial, nor procedural act, “it is a cover-up action, with which, with in a provocative way, a public prosecutor appointed by the government, a year ago, and who has also attempted to intervene in the Tempe case, and has gone to the Delphi forum to confront the families, we are talking about this public prosecutor, who , with public statements, washes the government’s hands.”
It is unthinkable to close the surveillance case, said the president of Freedom of Navigation, without knowing on whose behalf the surveillance was being carried out. Mrs. Konstantopoulou expanded her party’s request and requested that Mr. Menoudakos and Rammos, as well as the Minister of National Affairs and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis. The president of Plevsis Eleftheria called the ND MPs “high priests of the cover-up” and “invalid” today’s development.
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