Union of Prosecutors & Judges To Gov't & Media - Stop Intervening In The Justice System!

The President of the Union of Greek Judges and Prosecutors (EDE), Mrs. Vassiliki Thanou on Thursday urged the media and the government to stop intervening in the work of the prosecution and the ongoing investigation surrounding the case against the Golden Dawn party. She stated this in the presence of Minister of Justice Mr. Athanasiou, and the leadership of the Supreme Court, in an event that was organized to celebrate St. Dionysius of the Areopagite, who is the patron saint of judges.

The statements by Mrs. Thanou were made following a flood of criticism against the Greek justice system from the Greek media and specific political factors (especially Evangelos Venizelos and PASOK) shortly after the release of several members of the Golden Dawn party.

Ms Thanou said that over the last few days, and after 50 hours of investigating this case, ,"factors in the government and in the media" are exercising negative criticism against the prosecution's decisions and attempting in this way to intervene and influence their work.

     "They (they meaning political and media factors) do not want to understand that this is precisely the independence and impartiality of justice. That it must ignore the pressures from the media and from (political) parties, and make decisions that are unaffected, based only on evidence."
     "A judge is only accountable to his conscience and to God," said Mrs.Thanou adding that all concerned need to allow the Greek justice system "to perform its duty without any influence."
     "I want to assure all concerned that in this very difficult period for our country, the justice system remains proudly independent, and Greek people can and should trust them."

She then underlined that the Greek justice system wants to assure all citizens that the justice system will continue with a sense of courage, responsibility and devotion to serve the interests of Greek citizens, "and defend democratic institutions as well as the rule of law, as the Greek Constitution, the law and our conscience dictates", without any political influence