Th. Pleuris on the wiretapping case: If a commission of inquiry is requested, it will be done

“From the first moment, the government and the prime minister himself in the reports that were made, referred to malfunctions that existed and for this reason the resignation of the commander of the EYP was requested”, the minister emphasized today in his television interview on Open TV of Health Thanassis Pleuris who pointed out: “The connection concerning Mr. Androulakis and let’s make this clear and it is not a matter of wiretapping, it is a legal connection made for national reasons which were evaluated by the public prosecutor’s office. This is the procedure, none of us does not know the reason for this connection, but what we do know is that a public prosecutor’s office assessed that it should be done”.

As Mr. Pleuris said, this connection concerns a period when Mr. Androulakis is not the leader and president of PASOK – MOVEMENT FOR CHANGE.

“It was done without the knowledge of the prime minister and the prime minister’s office, and for this very reason the resignation of the EYP commander was also requested. Therefore, we are talking about a legal process. Explanations were given to the institutions and transparency committee and will be given again at the convocation that will done. And what the government has said from the very beginning is that if a commission of inquiry is requested, this commission of inquiry will take place. Where the commissions of inquiry control the entire process and beyond, we will also see the legality of the actions and if there are loopholes and if there are responsibilities. But let’s make it clear that we are talking about legal procedures that were followed,” he stressed.

Regarding the resignations, the Minister of Health said that Mr. Dimitriadis has been targeted and slandered by almost the entire opposition and was led to a resignation in order to facilitate the process and the war being waged against him. “He’s one of the best prime minister’s office managers who’s ever lived, but the war that’s being waged against him doesn’t turn into a total government war. So it was an act of bravery on his part that you don’t often see in politics,” he said. and added:

“The part that is related to the commander of the EYP and the Government has come over there and points out the political vacuum that existed, is that there was no information to the Maximos Palace about a connection, although legal, but which concerned a specific public figure and even a MEP who later became the leader of PASOK, the connection did not continue.

The EYP commander, precisely because he is under the office of the Prime Minister, should have informed and did not. So over there responsibility is assigned. Mind you, so we don’t get confused, the Prime Minister never gets the data. The procedure for national reasons when a link is made involves an assessment by a public prosecutor who is not a political person involved. And in fact I have to tell you a detail that while until 2018 this evaluation had to be done by two prosecutors, the one in the EYP and the prosecutor of Appeals, SYRIZA changed the legislation and now it is done only by one prosecutor, the one who is in the EYP. There is an act of justification which we obviously do not know. The data collected is not given to the Prime Minister. When we say that the EYP falls under the Prime Minister’s office as it did under Andreas Papandreou and Constantinos Mitsotakis, what is being done is that there is supervision in terms of procedures, not in terms of the collection of materials. The collection of materials is the responsibility of a prosecutor who gives the permission and the evaluation is done by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the prosecution bodies and it is something we are not aware of”.

SOURCE: AMPE