ATHENS, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Greek MPs approved early Thursday a special parliamentary probe into 10 former high-level officials, including two former prime ministers, over alleged implications in a bribery scandal involving Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis.
Following a marathon stormy debate at a plenary which was broadcast live on the parliament's TV channel, the majority of the 218 lawmakers participating in the roll call vote agreed to create a parliamentary committee to investigate whether they should be stripped of immunity so that they can be prosecuted by judicial authorities.
Under Greek legislation when names of ministers appear in judicial probes, the files must be automatically sent to parliament, regardless of whether there is any wrongdoing.
According to the government, three anonymous protected witnesses testified during the judicial investigation that the 10 officials were involved in the affair.
The allegations of corruption and bribery span a decade from 2006 to 2015, before the current government assumed office.
Some 50 million euros (62 million U.S. dollars) were given as kickbacks by the pharmaceutical company to politicians, public officials and doctors among others in exchange for price fixing, prosecution sources told Greek national news agency AMNA.
Investigators have calculated that the total damage incurred by the state as a result of the illegal practices of pharmaceutical companies after 2000 is around 23 billion euros, while the damage specifically involving Novartis amounts to 3 billion euros, AMNA reported.
All former officials implicated in the Novartis case have strongly denied any involvement. Some accused the government of interfering with justice. Others spoke of a slander campaign and have filed lawsuits against the protected witnesses.
Former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras (2012-2015) submitted a lawsuit to the Supreme Court against current Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras over the case.
The list of the 10 includes also former caretaker Prime Minister Panayotis Pikramenos who served for one month in 2012, and eight former ministers who had served in conservative-led, socialist-led and caretaker governments.
Among them are Yannis Stournaras, the current central banker who served as finance minister from 2012-2014, and Dimitris Avramopoulos, currently the European Union's Migration Affairs commissioner, who once served as health minister.
Both officials also denied any wrongdoing and requested a thorough investigation into the claims.