New judicial investigations have been launched into destructive wildfires that struck Mani in the Peloponnese and the island of Kythira in 2017, following claims by former fire service chief Vassilis Matthaiopoulos, revealed by Kathimerini, according to which water-dropping aircraft were not dispatched to those fires as part of a bid to discredit a senior fire service official at the time.

A judicial inquiry got under way on Tuesday into the revelations of a report by Kathimerini pointing to an apparent attempt by officials of the previous leftist-led government to cover up the gross mishandling of the catastrophic July 2018 wildfires in Mati.

Responding to a report by Kathimerini on Sunday, the head of the Athens prosecutor’s office, Evangelos Ioannidis, has ordered an inquiry into evidence that officials under the previous leftist-led government tried to cover up the gross mishandling of the wildfire in the seaside town of Mati east of Athens that cost more than 100 lives in July 2018.

A Greek Fire Service officer investigating the deadly July 23, 2018, wildfires in eastern Attica, sued the then head of the Fire Service, along with any accomplices or instigators for “attempted violence” against him, according to the lawsuit seen by Kathimerini.

Following the completion last week of a parliamentary investigation into former leftist alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos and whether he sought to influence the course of the Novartis bribery investigation, MPs are this week to decide whether to indict him. 

In the latest twist of an ongoing investigation into the judicial handling of the Novartis bribery probe, the head of the Athens Prosecutor’s Office has ordered the criminal prosecution of the country’s top corruption prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki for a series of offenses, including abuse of power. 

In a new twist in the ongoing investigation into the judicial handling of the Novartis bribery probe, the head of Athens’ Prosecutor’s Office ordered the criminal prosecution of the leading corruption prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki.

The Council of State, Greece’s top administrative court, ruled on Tuesday that citizens who sustained pension cuts between June 2015 and May 2016, and who have lodged legal appeals, are entitled to retroactive claims. The court stopped short, however, of vindicating numerous others that had made claims for later years, effectively putting the ball in the court of the government regarding other claimants.

In the latest allegation of wrongdoing implicating the previous SYRIZA-led coalition government, businessman Christos Kalogritsas has claimed that it was aware of a shell company he had set up with which to participate in a competition for television licenses in 2016. 

Greece aims to seek financial compensation from Swiss drugmaker Novartis in connection with the bribery scandal concerning which the company settled out of court in the United States, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said on Friday. Meanwhile, Greek judicial officials expressed concern that most of the offenses found to have been committed by doctors have likely expired under the statute of limitations.

An Athens prosecutor has launched an investigation into the recording of a conversation presented to Parliament this week by prominent Greek-Israeli businessman Sabby Mionis which appears to suggest that former alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos was involved in shady dealings.

Almost two years after a 2018 deadly blaze in the seaside town of Mati, eastern Attica, a special magistrate probing the case asked on Thursday to bring forward new felony charges of exposing people to danger against employees of the Greek Fire Service and the General Secretariat for Civil Protection.

Αn audio recording of a conversation between a businessman and the former minister of state under the previous SYRIZA administration, which allegedly implicates ex-alternate justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos, was sent to the head of the Athens prosecutor’s office on Tuesday.

A prominent Greek-Israeli businessman submitted written testimony to a parliamentary committee investigating a minister under the former SYRIZA government, claiming that he had been harassed by judicial officials for failing to pay a bribe to the ex-politician.

The government is considering introducing evaluation and training for judicial officials to ensure that their rise through the ranks of the judiciary is dependent on their abilities, Kathimerini understands.

Greece’s Council of State has green-lighted the increase of the number of the country’s border guards by 480, after examining a relevant Presidential Decree.

The trial over the death of 33-year-old LGBTQI activist Zak Kostopoulos in September 2018 in central Athens has been set for October 21. 

Two men who were found guilty of gang-raping and murdering 21-year-old university student Eleni Topaloudi on Rhodes in November 2018 were sentenced on Friday to life imprisonment and an additional 15 years each.

A court is on Friday expected to give its verdict in the trial of two defendants accused of the murder and rape of 21-year-old university student Eleni Topaloudi on the island of Rhodes in November 2018.

The Greek government has opted for a mass statute of limitations for relatively minor offenses in order to deal with the backlog burdening criminal courts, which remain closed since March due to the lockdown that was implemented to contain the coronavirus pandemic.