The Greek parliament has voted in favor of opening a criminal case against a former minister, accused of exerting pressure in the context of the corruption scandal that has engulfed the Basel-based pharmaceutical multinational Novartis.
It is Dimitris Papangelopoulos, responsible for justice between 2015 and 2019 of the left-wing government led by Alexis Tsipras.
Yesterday evening, the 177 deputies of the right-wing majority - out of a total of 300 members - voted to 
Papangelopoulos to be tried on eight counts, including abuse of power. Now it will be up to the justice to establish whether the politician will have to face proceedings before a special court, created specifically as required by the Constitution.
The vote comes at the end of a parliamentary inquiry opened last year after the rise to power of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the conservatives of New Democracy and prime minister since July 2019. The Greek branch of Novartis admitted to having paid, between the 2012 and 2015, bribes to employees of public hospitals in the country, so as to increase the sales of its pharmaceutical products.
In the past, even Tsipras' executive had blamed his former opponents in government – New Democracy and Kinal's socialists – for being involved in the fuss. In particular, he had pointed the finger at over a hundred doctors, thirty senior officials and a dozen politicians.
The corruption investigation against the Rhenish giant had started from the United States. Novartis also acknowledged that some doctors - we are talking about 2009 and 2010 - were paid to participate in an epidemiological study, with the aim in reality of pushing them to prescribe its drugs more frequently.
These practices have allowed the Swiss group to gain a privileged position on the Greek market and to inflate prices, in the same years in which the nation was floundering, having to deal with a serious economic crisis. According to the investigation, Novartis shares cost Athens about 3 billion euros.
