ATHENS, April 6 (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged EU prosecutors on Monday to decide swiftly whether to indict lawmakers from his centre-right New Democracy party as part of a farm fraud probe, as he seeks to stem the political fallout from the scandal.
The case has rocked the government after European prosecutors charged dozens of Greek stockbreeders last year with faking ownership of pastureland to claim millions of euros in EU farm subsidies, allegedly with the help of state employees and conservative politicians.
Widening the probe, the prosecutors asked Greece’s parliament last week to lift the immunity of at least 11 conservative MPs, including former ministers, to allow an investigation into alleged crimes against the European Union’s financial interests.
The accusations against the lawmakers, who are protected from prosecution under Greek law, include instigation of breach of trust and computer fraud, and are based on evidence gathered by Greek authorities.
Mitsotakis, who has reshuffled his cabinet, said in an address that the request was a serious development but the cases varied in gravity and he was determined to defend the lawmakers’ right to a presumption of innocence.
“I am calling on the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, once (their) parliamentary immunity has been lifted, to proceed swiftly with all investigative acts and to decide whether, how many and whom it intends to prosecute,” he said.
Mitsotakis also pledged reforms to increase transparency and fight clientelism, including a recommendation that MPs appointed as ministers be replaced in parliament and not be allowed to hold both positions simultaneously.
EU PROSECUTORS SHARE EVIDENCE WITH GREEK PARLIAMENT
On Saturday, parliament received the evidence submitted by European prosecutors along with the request to lift the lawmakers’ immunity.
The documents, seen by Reuters, contain transcribed conversations between the MPs – former ministers among them or their aides – and senior employees of the OPEKEPE agency, which handles EU farm subsidies.
“We’ll be exposed … we certainly need to fix this,” one of them told an OPEKEPE official. The prosecutors argue in the documents that the lawmakers exploited their political status to assert pressure on agency officials.
Greek lawmakers and ministers are protected from prosecution under the constitution, and only parliament can lift their immunity.
New Democracy has 156 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament. Two former ministers implicated in the probe have denied wrongdoing and requested in advance that their immunity be lifted.
An ethics committee will discuss the issue on Tuesday, and parliament is expected to lift the MPs’ immunity in a vote next week.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Yannis Souliotis; Editing by Joe Bavier)
