THESSALONIKI – An Aristotle University Professor of Clinical Pharmacology who is a prominent anti-vaxxer went on trial for claiming that Greece’s former deputy health minister Nikos Hardalias suffered a heart attack after being inoculated against COVID-19.

Dimitris Kouvelas had been indicted after an investigation under the New Democracy government’s new Fake News Law which can be used against anyone believed to be spreading fake claims about the pandemic, including journalists.

Kouvelas had also said that Hardalis, who was a leader in the fight against the pandemic, should have reprimanded the National Organization for Medicines (EOF) for approving the vaccines, reported Kathimerini.

Kouvelas is a favorite of rabid anti-vaxxers who spread the Coronavirus and weren’t required to take the shot after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis backed away from a pledge to consider making them mandatory.

In August, 2020, as the pandemic was raging during a year when lockdowns were being imposed and before vaccines were made, Kouvelas had said that a woman would be more at risk of being groped than being infected with COVID if she got too close to him.

Protesters who supported him for his stance against vaccines and the pandemic gathered outside the courthouse, anti-vaxxers believing they are not safe or effective or part of an international conspiracy to alter their DNA or also control their minds.