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Greek ministers files lawsuit over alleged classified documents leak in "Panoussis gate"

Xinhua, November 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Greek Minister of Justice Nikos Paraskevopoulos and Public Order Minister Nikos Toskas filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against whoever is responsible for the leaks of classified documents in the so-called "Panoussis gate" that has caused a political storm in Athens this week.

Yannis Panoussis, a criminology professor who served as Public Order minister in the first Radical Left SYRIZA government from January to August this year, visited the same office of the Supreme Court prosecutor on Monday to submit information on his claims that SYRIZA party members who were in contact with imprisoned "terrorists" threatened his life.

In statements to media, Panoussis claimed that party officers who had often visited "terrorists" and criminals in prison targeted him over legislation regarding the treatment of "terrorists" during his term in office.

The former minister has alleged that he was also alerted on the danger by the current head of Greece's National Intelligence Service Yannis Roubatis.

Following his visit to the Supreme Court, local media cited abstracts of recorded telephone conversations between prison inmates and SYRIZA members that he is said to have submitted to judicial authorities.

According to the material that seems to have been gathered by the National Intelligence Service (EYP), at least one name was on the spotlight. Panos Lambrou, member of SYRIZA's political secretariat and an aide to Paraskevopoulos until August, issued a statement that he indeed held talks with inmates as part of his duties, dismissing the allegations as a bid to defame SYRIZA.

The justice minister backed Lambrou playing down Panoussis' claims. Several government ministers have implied that Panoussis caused uproar to publicize an upcoming book he has written, a political- crime thriller.

On Wednesday exiting the Supreme Court prosecutor's office, Paraskevopoulos and Toskas said that they filed the lawsuit because the publication of classified documents raises issues of national security.

Opposition parties represented in parliament called for a thorough investigation into the case, claiming that the lawsuit filed was a bid to silence the former official. Endit