8
TSALIKIDIS AND OTHERS v. GREECE JUDGMENT
25. As third evidence the applicants submitted a letter dated 15 June
2010 written by the President of the Committee on Institutions and
Transparency of the Greek Parliament and addressed to the public
prosecutor at the Court of Cassation in which the former expressed the view
that there had not been sufficient investigation of the relationship between
the death of Costas Tsalikidis and the wiretapping affair. They also cited a
public statement made on 5 September 2011 by the former President of the
Parliamentary Committee of Institutions and Transparency, who was then
already Minister of Justice, that “the question of whether Costas Tsalikidis
committed suicide or was murdered will always remain open”.
26. In view of the above evidence, the applicants requested the
reopening of the case file. They requested in particular that the following
investigative measures be implemented: phone operator V. to be ordered to
provide the minutes of the meeting that took place the day before
Mr Tsalikidis was found dead, representatives of V. to confirm officially
that Mr Tsalikidis was the person responsible for accepting on behalf of
their company the legal software provided by company E. which was used
to activate the program of wiretapping, a forensic examination of the place
of death and a reconstruction of the circumstances of the death to be
conducted, exhumation and new toxicology tests to be run, a
cross-examination of the applicants’ technical advisors together with
coroners G.D.L. and F.K. to be organised, a new forensic report to be drawn
up by another coroner, an expert report to be produced concerning the knot,
technical advisors S.K. and Th. V. to be summoned to testify, and witness
statements to be taken again in the light of the new evidence acquired. They
stressed in particular that the scope of the investigation should include the
deletion of the illegally installed software from the network of V. and why it
was removed before the authorities had been informed.
27. By document no. E 2006/1200/29-2-2012, issued by the public
prosecutor at the Athens Court of First Instance on 29 February 2012 and
addressed to the public prosecutor at the Athens Court of Appeal, approval
was sought to reopen the case file pursuant to Article 43 § 3 (a) and
Article 47 § 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. On 7 March 2012 the
request was granted and a supplementary preliminary investigation was
ordered.
28. On 20 April 2012 the public prosecutor at the Athens Court of First
Instance ordered the exhumation of Mr Tsalikidis’ body, the conduct of a
new forensic autopsy and the execution of all laboratory tests to be carried
out in a laboratory in the presence of the technical advisors appointed by the
applicants.
29. The exhumation took place on 3 May 2012 in the presence of
coroners I.B., N.K. and Ch.S. and the applicants’ technical advisor Th.V.,
and biological material was sent to the Universities of Athens and Crete for
the purpose of conducting toxicology tests. According to toxicology report