At the end of the criminal investigation and if an issue of criminal charges arises, a decision will be made whether a private public prosecutor will be appointed. This was stated today in the Legal Committee of the Parliament by Attorney General Giorgos Savvidis.
Mr. Savvidis was invited to the Committee together with the Assistant Attorney General Savvas Angelidis for a first acquaintance with the new members and was responding to a statement by AKEL MP Andreas Pasiourtidis, who reiterated his party's position that the two heads of the Legal Service should resign, in order to restore the citizens' sense of trust in the impartiality of the Legal Service. As he argued, the current situation creates dead ends, as it is not possible for the Legal Service to completely abstain from the entire process for the "Mafia State".
In response, the Attorney General stated that we must be very careful, "I don't know when the criminal process will end, if I will be the one to make the decisions, I can handle it impartially whoever is involved even if it is my relative. However, in order for there to be objective impartiality, we were exempted. We did the obvious and the right thing, if we did the opposite, they would hang us," he said.
Responding to a remark by the same MP about the release of ''Hamburger'', Mr. Savvidis noted that many of our decisions are at odds with the rest of the world. The role of the Attorney General is very lonely, it has the advantage of being an independent institution, it cannot be retired and it does not need to be liked because it will not address the people to be elected. Regardless of the noises, when we make our decisions, we isolate any public opinion. I can accept that we could be more extroverted as a Service. In most serious cases we issued a statement such as in the case of Hamburger and the suspension of prosecution for the black van. It spoils your narrative that we did not give any explanation for the black van," said the Attorney General.
The issue of the separation of powers of the Attorney General was not absent from the field of discussion. Mr. Savvidis said that the advantage of the coexistence of the criminal sector with the other sectors is enormous. "It's a matter of opinion, I'm not convinced about the conflict issues of the dual role. My position was based purely on issues of constitutionality of the law. I did not want to block the wishes of the President and others, and if I wanted to block the process I would not have signed the explanatory statement. Unfortunately, I only had two options: either I wouldn't sign them and there would be a problem, or I would sign them and accompany them with legal opinions, which is what happened. Certainly the changes do not concern the period when I will be the General Staff. My concern, if the President does not make a report, is that I do not know how the issue of constitutionality will be resolved," he noted.
Prioritizing his priorities, the Attorney General raised the issue of surveillance. We want to crack down on corruption, we can't do without surveillance. Please, the issue of surveillance is something that needs to move forward if we want to crack down on corruption. The human right of the criminal cannot prevail. He also raised the issue of fake news through social networks. The bill is before us, they will consult with the Ministry of Justice and will soon be with you, he remarked. We are talking about limiting impunity, it is a restriction of someone sitting behind the keyboard and cursing. We hope that some protection will be institutionalized, he said.
Regarding the release of ''Hamburger'' with a presidential pardon, Mr. Savvidis said that the Legal Service often has evidence that cannot be made public, while it is not right, as he noted, to set up "people's courts" for ongoing cases or for decisions made on the basis of data that are not publicly known. On the same issue, the Assistant Attorney General said that the decision was taken on the basis of many parameters, with the involvement of the Police, the witness program, the issues of security and the prosecution of organized crime.
