SLpress.gr: Government wants a freeze on Pappas as SYRIZA points to Netanyahu

The government and the New Democracy party (ND) are keeping main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras in a corner, urging him to either quarantine Nikos Pappas or take responsibility for the “parastatal organization”, the operation of which, as they claim, is revealed by the former minister’s conversation with businessman Mionis. At the same time, the Prosecutor’s Office ordered a preliminary examination, in the hands of which is the material of the conversation, while Pappas and Papagelopoulos are involving the Israeli government and PM Netanyahu personally.

Nikos Pappas admitted on Tuesday in a television interview with Mega that “it is his own voice in the recording”. He claimed, however, that his reference to “some who make a lot of money” was not for Papagelopoulos.

“When I was talking about money, I was referring to those of Mionis and his own business with Mr. Papastavrou,” he said, reiterating the issue of 2.6m euros, for which “Mr. Samaras had intervened in 2013,” he said. He also claimed that the only reason for his presence in the case was the intervention of the Israeli state, while he stated that Mr. Mionis asked him to appoint him consul of Greece to Israel!

“We didn’t “roll in the hay” with Mionis”

Although intimacy is evident in the transcripts of the Pappas-Mionis conversation, Papagelopoulos also supported the view on Israeli intervention. Leaving the pre-investigation committee, the former Deputy Minister of Justice stated that “if one reads carefully and without empathy the passage of the conversation, one will understand that Mr. Pappas was involved in the case through the intervention of Netanyahu.”

He also claimed that the audio excerpt shows that “the SYRIZA government and I did not “roll in the hay” with Mr. Mionis. And we didn’t do so, even though he was threatening and blackmailing. ” At the same time, he described the Mionis-Pappas conversation as an “Ode to the Independence of Justice”, because, as he claimed, it shows that neither he (Papaggelopoulos) nor Eleni Touloupaki could function under tutelage. However, he expressed the assessment that the conversation presented by the businessman may have been “sliced and diced”.

The former Deputy Minister of Justice was asked by the Commission why Nikos Pappas submitted different things from what emerges from the conversation and, correctly, answered that they should summon him to answer himself. He later noted, however, that the former Minister of State was already explaining himself and that there was no distance between him and Tsipras and Pappas, as has been reported.

“Forget it Antonis… Okay Mimis”

Regarding Antonis Samaras and Mareva Grabowski, Dimitris Papagelopoulos noted that “even if the Pappas-Mionis dialogue is faithfully delivered”, he was not mentioned anywhere. He even claimed that he was tempted to say “that Mr. Samaras tried to put Mr. Grabowski in the frame of the conversation we had and, in fact, with indecent characterizations”.

The former minister said he was not threatened, nor blackmailed by Antonis Samaras, but confirmed that the former prime minister had invited him to his home and asked him to help Papastavrou, but he refused to do so. “I told him, forget it Antonis. Okay Mimis, he told me. Besides, I’m “paying for” Mareva. He is a friend of hers, Samaras told me,” said Mr. Papagelopoulos.

Commenting on the former minister’s statements today, ND circles spoke of an “obvious admission” that Antonis Samaras did not pressure Papagelopoulos and did not intervene in juridical matters, while attributing to the former minister Papagelopoulos some sort of “selective Alzheimer’s disease”, noting that he falls into constant contradictions. Focusing on the fact that he asked for an interruption, pressured, as they say, by the questions, Mr. Papagelopoulos appeared “faithful to his doctrine of “when pressured I invoke fatigue”.

However, just as the comments of the ND circles are “selective”, just as “selective” in terms of the interpretation of the events were the leaks from SYRIZA. Sources in SYRIZA HQ at Koumoundourou Square spoke of the “activities of a real parastate” which, as they said, leads “the political life of the country, with the absolute volition and responsibility of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in the muck and the mire“. SYRIZA’s circles referred to the ease with which the government adopted the “illegal recording” of the Pappas-Mioniσ conversation and spoke of a “parastate” that had been in operation since Kyriakos Mitsotakis was in opposition.

What the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating

Meanwhile, the preliminary investigation was ordered by the head of the Prosecutor’s Office, Vangelis Ioannidis, and according to the court report, during a first phase, this will concern “purely legal issues”, to which the prosecuting officer who will be called to handle will have to answer. the case. Information wants one of the first issues, which the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating, to concern the nature of the material.

The prosecuting officer will be asked to answer first if the material is legitimate or illegal, in the light of the crucial question, whether the conversation is considered public or private. In other words, if there were other people present, apart from Nikos Pappas and Sabby Mionis. Another issue that will concern the investigation is the place where the conversation was recorded. As it turns out, this happened in Cyprus, but there the act of such recordings is governed by different laws.

The investigation should also answer the question of whether the material is evidence of an alleged act. That is, if its use is legitimized on the basis of the conditions that apply in article 14 of law 4637/2019. This law allows the use of evidence, if it relates to criminal financial activities and corruption. It can not be ruled out that the Prosecutor’s Office may also order an expert opinion in order to determine whether the recorded material is genuine and, above all, whether it has been processed.