Main opposition New Democracy (ND) on Tuesday continued to insist that the US ambassador to Athens told the party's president, a day earlier, that the FBI is not investigating any Greek politicians as part of an international investigation into the Novartis pharmaceutical giant.
In press release, ND underlined that US envoy Geoffrey Pyatt himself broached the issue with ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The US diplomat, again as relayed by ND, told Mitsotakis that no Greek politician is involved.
Government sources angrily replied on Monday evening that a diplomatic adviser for Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urgently spoke with Pyatt hours after his meeting with Mitsotakis.
The unnamed sources representing the government claimed that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' diplomatic adviser spoke with Pyatt by phone, immediately after statements attributed to the latter by the ND sources were widely circulated.
"... he (Pyatt) never referred to whether or not Greek politicians are found in the FBI investigation into the Novartis scandal," was the late-night and hastily issued (unofficial) statement circulated by the government.
A day later, ND reiterated that Pyatt said probes so far by the FBI into the Novartis case do not involve any Greek politician, something that also applies to an ongoing investigation, which deals with violations of US federal law.
The ND statement, moreover, also has Pyatt as telling Mitsotakis that the US side does not desire any involvement in similar investigations being conducted by Greek judicial officials.
The poll-trailing leftist-rightist coalition government has enthusiastically seized on an indictment sent to Parliament by an anti-corruption prosecutor last week. The latter focuses on an investigation into alleged kickbacks and bribery by Novartis’ Greek subsidiary. The voluminous indictment includes allegations against 10 top Greek politicians made by three “protected witnesses”, essentially anonymous witnesses whose testimony - over the course of the last three months - implicated two former prime ministers and eight one-time health ministers.
