The lifting of the parliamentary immunity of Dimitris Avramopoulos and Zoi Konstantopoulou was approved by the Plenary of Parliament, paving the way for the continuation of the judicial proceedings concerning them.
In favor of lifting the immunity of the former commissioner and New Democracy MP, Dimitris Avramopoulos, 264 MPs voted, in the context of the European Public Prosecutor's Office investigation into the Qatargate case.
Correspondingly, in favor of lifting the immunity of the president of Course of Freedom, Zoi Konstantopoulou, 175 MPs voted, following a lawsuit that has been filed against her.
Dimitris Avramopoulos did not attend the session, however he sent a memorandum to the Speaker of Parliament Nikitas Kaklamanis, with which he denied any involvement in the Qatargate case.
According to parliamentary sources, he himself had requested the lifting of his immunity in order, as he states, to fully assist in the investigations of the European Public Prosecutor's Office and is expected in the coming period to travel to Belgium for this purpose.
In the case of Zoi Konstantopoulou, she had initially informed the Speaker of Parliament by letter that she would not be able to attend due to the trial of the case of Sifis Valyrakis.
She ultimately crossed the threshold of Parliament, took the floor launching a fierce attack against the government, speaking of an organized attempt at politically targeting her.
Ms. Konstantopoulou spoke of a “tsunami of case files” coming to Parliament with the aim of harming her politically, while she also targeted PASOK.
“We have statements and case files that all have the common denominator that they come from New Democracy and especially with the special participation of Messrs. Georgiadis, Voridis, Marinakis, Lazaridis and Markopoulos, and all this clearly on the orders of the prime minister himself Kyriakos Mitsotakis”, she claimed.
At the same time, she accused New Democracy as well as PASOK of contributing to the holding of the session despite her request for a postponement.
“I regret the collusion with New Democracy so that the trial for the murder of Sifis Valyrakis is torpedoed in such a cheap way”, she said characteristically.
The response from New Democracy's side was harsh through parliamentary representative Dimitris Kairidis, who criticized Ms. Konstantopoulou's political stance.
“This kind of blank fire, the shouting, the toxicity and the tensions do not constitute opposition”, he said, adding that “Dimitris Avramopoulos himself requested the lifting of his immunity, while you are hiding”.
The discussion developed into a new head-on clash between the government and Course of Freedom, against the backdrop of both the lawsuit against Zoi Konstantopoulou and the Avramopoulos case linked to the European investigation into Qatargate.
Source: ertnews.gr