Pantazi, speaking on a Lamia radio station, had branded the decision of the Lamia Misdemeanours Court Council to reject her client’s request for release as a ‘judicial coup’. She accused the judges of ‘accepting political interference’ and described the president of the council as ‘entitled’.
In response, the EDE denounced her comments as ‘legally childish claims’ and ‘blatant lies’, citing examples such as her assertion that it was ‘unprecedented to reject requests from a defendant who has a positive proposal from the First Instance Prosecutor’s Office’.
The Union accused Pantazi of attempting to exert undue pressure on the judiciary to secure her client’s release, while disregarding the legal reasoning of the council’s decision. It reminded her that, according to Supreme Court jurisprudence (All AP 4/1998, All AP 4/1997, AP 843/2023, AP 116/2025), the competent council is required to review all aspects of a prisoner’s conduct, otherwise its role would be reduced to ‘a mere intermediary executive body of the prison administration, without authority’.
‘Unfair pressures of this nature are not part of the right to represent defendants or detainees,’ the Union stated. ‘They will fall on deaf ears.’
The EDE reaffirmed its support for judges and prosecutors ‘who act in accordance with the Constitution, the law and their conscience’.
It also announced that it would send the audio of Pantazi’s interview to the Athens Bar Association (ABA), calling for ‘exemplary disciplinary measures’ against lawyers who ‘discredit their profession’.
‘We have requested the ABA’s assistance in the past, and we will do the same now,’ the Union said. ‘We will continue to publicly denounce lawyers who use such methods of pressure and self-promotion.’
The statement called on political parties and bar associations to take a public stance against what it described as ‘degenerative phenomena that are multiplying rapidly and easily find imitators’.
‘The struggle to create a more independent and unbound judiciary,’ the Union concluded, ‘does not rest solely on the shoulders of judges, it is a responsibility shared by the whole of society.’
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