Greek authorities received a European arrest warrant by Belgium against former European commissioner and current Greek New Democracy lawmaker, Dimitris Avramopoulos, as part of the Qatargate investigation, sources from Greece’s Citizen Protection Ministry said on Wednesday.
The sources were responding to Avramopoulos who claimed on television earlier in the day that the Belgian warrant was not issued by the country’s judicial authorities but by the police, and therefore “was not European,” downgrading its legitimacy.
“The competent Prosecutor’s Office in Greece for SIRENE (Supplementary Information Request at the National Entries) falls under the Athens Appeals Prosecutor’s Office, which manages European Arrest Warrants and the transmission of judicial information through the Schengen Information System (SIS),” the sources said.
“The European Arrest Warrant was transmitted within 24 hours to the competent Athens Appeals Prosecutor for further action, while the Hellenic Police acted as in any similar case for the implementation of a European Arrest Warrant,” they added.
The same sources also responded to Avramopoulos’ claim that the warrant sat in Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis’ drawer for three days, without informing the former commissioner about it.
