Prosecutor Eleni Tulupaki, who is on trial alongside former Minister Dimitris Papagelopoulos under the Ministerial Responsibility Act, apologized to the Special Court yesterday. Ms. Tulupaki, as head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, led an investigation into Novartis’ illegal activities and took charge of the prosecution of ten politicians based on complaints from protected witnesses. However, she is being tried only because she did not send, along with ten politicians, KINAL reports on ministers Panagiotis Kurumplis and Andreas Xanthos.

In her lengthy statement, the prosecutor spoke of the “merciless war” she faced from politicians and the media when she dealt with politicians. As he characteristically put it, he suffered “the most concerted attempt to exterminate a court official since the post-colonial era,” referring to “her impeachment” and the vulgar attacks he received from time to time.

As for the investigations against ten politicians, Ms. Tulupaki defended the legality of her actions and added that she did not participate in political games and did not serve political tricks. In support of her position, she stated that although she sent the case with ten politicians (Antonis Samaras, Panagiotis Picrammeno, Ioannis Sturnaras and others) to Parliament, she was the one who, when the case was returned from Parliament, placed most of it to a file.

What was argued yesterday in her statement by the prosecutor, who is being tried together with Dimitris Papagelopoulos on the basis of the law on ministerial responsibility.

In particular, the prosecutor said that before the 2019 elections, she brought in seven of the ten politicians whose names were involved in the illegal actions of Novartis, and three more – the case was also initiated – was led by prosecutor Christos Bardakis. who succeeded her as head of the prosecutor’s office for corruption (she is not on trial for her treatment of ten politicians, as the charge against her was closed by a decision of the Judicial Council of the Special Court).

As regards her accusation before the Special Court of failing to send the KINAL reports to Parliament on Ministers of Health Kurumplis and Xanthos, she pleaded not guilty, emphasizing that the reports in question had no incriminating content, and cited for this purpose that and her predecessor Eleni Raikou did the same.

Regarding her relationship with her co-defendant former minister Dimitris Papagelopoulos, who is on trial as a moral offender due to her inaction, she stressed that she only had a professional relationship with him without any particular intimacy. “Mr. Papagelopoulos,” she emphasized in her apology, “presents himself as the moral culprit of my actions. I want to tell you that I have not had a dialogue with any politician. But I was in constant inner dialogue with my conscience and with God.” The prosecutor, in her apology, detailed her treatment of Novartis, her legal path, and her long-term prosecution, stressing, among other things: “During our investigation of Novartis and political figures, we came under the control of political figures who are under criminal investigation. There was not a day when we did not give explanations to either the Supreme Court or Parliament.”

The trial in the Special Court will continue in the coming days with an apology from former minister Dimitris Papagelopoulos, who is on trial for a number of case-specific interventions with prosecutors, in addition to moral complicity in Toulupakis’ inaction.