The submission of the case file against Alexis Tsipras concerning the 2019 amendments to the Criminal Codes was announced to the plenary session of the Hellenic Parliament.

The case file was opened following a complaint filed by Kyriakos Velopoulos with the Supreme Court (Areios Pagos) last July over the changes to the Criminal Codes, shortly before the 2019 elections. At the time, the then prime minister had announced snap elections but nevertheless kept Parliament in session so that the legislative initiative in question could be passed.

That move had provoked a reaction even from former SYRIZA Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis, who had described it as an “extreme act of entanglement” and referred to “tailor-made provisions”.

It is recalled that Adonis Georgiadis had made the first public allegations against then Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at the time, concerning the amendments to the Criminal Codes.

The political confrontation has recently intensified, with Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself, as well as numerous government officials, repeatedly calling on Alexis Tsipras to explain “which debts he was paying off back then”.

Recently, the Minister of Health, in a television interview on Action TV, stressed that the former prime minister had “received money to pass the Criminal Codes”, citing earlier statements by former Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis.

“Mr Kontonis, the Justice Minister in his government, stated that he received money to pass the Criminal Codes. That is the only logical explanation for the fact that, although elections had been called for 30 June, they were postponed until 7 July. If he wants, he can sue me. Tsipras is the most corrupt politician of the post-dictatorship era, and Mitsotakis simply did not pursue him,” he said.