Restoring people's faith in justice a top priority, Justice Minister Tsiaras tells ANA

"What we are striving for, as the justice ministry's political leadership, is that there should be no shadows cast over justice," newly-appointed Justice Minister Kostas Tsiaras said in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency published on Sunday.

The prime minister wanted to be "done with lawlessness, once and for all," he said, while the top priority was to restore people's faith in justice.

The ministry's leadership had no doubts concerning Greek judges, he added, but its aim was that the citizens should also have no doubts on this score. The appointment of the new Supreme Court president and prosecutor, which are still pending after the president returned the previous government's selections unsigned, will be set in motion immediately after the vote of confidence in the government, he said.

The previous Supreme Court president and prosecutor had stepped down on June 30 after reaching obligatory retirement age.

Tsiaras also indicated the present government's intention to make changes to the new penal code passed by the previous government, noting that New Democracy had expressed many reservations about "problematic articles" this contained.

"We have indicated the direction of the changes and made clear that these will move toward a stricter framework with respect to conditional releases of those serving hard time and the options for granting furlough to convicted, unrepentant murderers. In addition, in the implementation of the new penal code, serious issues have arisen in matters concerning the fight against corruption," Tsiaras said.