ATHENS – A former deputy justice minister and three Greek prosecutors concocted a scandal around the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis to get rival politicians and should be tried, Deputy Prosecutor  Eleni Metsovitou-Fourli recommended.

The former minister, Dimitris Papangelopoulos, served the then-ruling Radical Left SYRIZA but no charges have been brought against its leader and former premier Alexis Tspiras, who said the case was “the biggest scandal in modern Greek history,” but offered no proof.

No evidence came either from four self-claimed whistleblowers who said only that they overheard that 10 politicians who were rivals of SYRIZA were taking bribes from Novartis to further its business in Greece.

Nine have been cleared and the case hasn’t been closed despite no proof being brought about any wrongdoing despite insistence by prosecutor Eleni Touloupaki  – fingered by  Metsovitou-Fourli for trial – it was covered up.

The four named by Metsovitou-Fourli should be tried by a special tribunal in connection with the handling of the Novartis affair, she said, adding that there’s evidence showing they acted together.

She made her findings to the Judicial Council and said that the four – Touloupaki compiled the Novartis case file – abused their power in an attempt to get SYRIZA’s rivals but the attempt had failed.