Galery

1

The Commission on Ethics at the Greek parliament has withdrawn the deputy immunity of Dora Bakogiannis at her request. The reason for this was the decision of prosecutor Konstantinos Tzavelas to start proceedings against her husband Isidoros Kouvelos charging him with direct assistance in filing a false tax return. Under the Greek law, the specific violation is a felony. It is about the amount of one million dollars, which created a great stir in the media a few months ago.

Dora Bakogiannis based her decision to request the withdrawal of her deputy immunity in a desire to "leave no shadows" on the case, which her political opponents used to harm her. "Because the case has turned into a major political issue, I asked for the members of the Commission on Ethics to show solidarity as colleagues and withdraw my deputy immunity. This action is fully consistent with my longstanding position that the immunity of deputies should be withdrawn, when it comes to issues that are not related to their parliamentary activity and that should be addressed by justice," she said.

The Commission on Ethics examined the case file against radical left deputy Dimitris Papadimoulis too. In his case, the infamous singer - dancer and participant in porn films Julia Alexandratou approached justice two years ago. The deputy was charged with defamation because of a statement to the plenary session of parliament that accused Julia of tax evasion. The controversial statement was the following, "The national porn star, who private television channels brought to the fore, was touring Greece as a guest artist in a different establishment every night. Then, she went to the police, where she signed a statement that she had sung without a fee, arguing that she was a personal guest of the owner of the establishment, chalga club or nightclub, where she had preformed her show. What is the state doing against this obviously provocative tax evasion?"

Dimitris Papadimoulis explained that he had asked the members of the Commission on Ethics to withdraw his immunity and that he firmly supported the statement he had made on 15 April 2010. "It took the case file more than two years to reach the parliament. The delay of major scandals like that with Siemens is even greater."

However, the Commission decided to not satisfy his request.