Greek journalist Kostas Vaxevanis has been acquitted by an Athens court on Thursday night in a trial that lasted almost ten hours. The prosecutor had raised charges against Vaxevanis for breaching privacy after he published the names of 2,000 suspected tax evaders in his magazine HOT DOC. Vaxevanis was arrested last Sunday.
Lawyers for Vaxevanis, 46, argued that the charges were outrageous and said no-one on the list had actually complained of a breach of privacy. After a one-day trial, a court in Athens found Mr Vaxevanis innocent.
Kostas Vaxevanis said he had published the list because it was his job as a journalist to reveal the truth.
“The three last governments have lied and have made a mockery of the Greek people with this list,” he said.
“They were obliged to pass it to parliament or to the justice system. They didn’t do it, and they should be in prison for it.”
Prosecutors had accused him of publicly ridiculing people and delivering them “to a society that is thirsty for blood”.
“The solution to the problems that the country is facing is not cannibalism,” the prosecutor said.
But the court took little time in acquitting the journalist, and observers in the courtroom broke out in applause, according to the AFP news agency.
The list Vaxevanis had published is reportedly the infamous Lagarde-List, containing the names of account-holders in HSBC bank, Geneva, Switzerland. It was stolen by ex bank-employee Herve Falciani and was handed to Greek ex finance minister George Papaconstantinou in 2010 by then French finance minister Christine Lagarde.
Papaconstantinou and also his successor Evangelos Venizelos apparently kept the list for two years without taking meaningful action while the country was struggling with bankruptcy, the citizens were burden with heavy taxes and tax evasion is considered as one of the main problems of for the economic situation of Greece. The list contains names of prominent businessmen, one politician but also housewives and students.
Bravo! This is very good news. And it happened on the 1 November. Let’s hope this means more honesty and less corruption for the rest of this month at least.
lol even a corruption-free month would help 🙂
@KTG – how can I get the Hot Doc magazine? We live near Nafplio so not easy to pop to Athens!
go to their website and ask them to send you a copy.
Good news for him. But every journalist in Greece now knows that the knock on the door in the middle of the night is a real possibility when they dare to do they job.