Former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou will be referred to “special court” and stands trial for deleting the names of four of his relatives from the infamous Lagarde-List containing the names of Greeks suspected of tax evasion.
With votes 4:1 the judges of the Supreme Judicial Council of the Supreme Court decided that the former finance minister will have to stand trial for “distortion of document and attempted betrayal of trust.”
The judged dropped the charges of “misconduct” against Papaconstantinou as well charges of “incitement” against three of his relatives. (via efsyn.gr)
Giorgos Papaconstantinou, a PASOK politician, served as Finance Minister from October 2009 until June 2011 under George Papandreou government. He did not managed to be elected in the Parliament at June 2012 elections.
“Following the elections, Papaconstantinou has faced a parliamentary investigation into the handling of the so-called Lagarde list, containing information on the deposits of roughly 2,000 Greek citizens at HSBC bank’s Geneva branch, which he asked for and received from French authorities in 2010. While Papaconstantinou asked the Greek tax authorities to investigate the list, they failed to do so. In late 2012, the Greek authorities alleged that the names of three of his relatives had been removed. Those allegations resulted in his expulsion from the PASOK political party, He has denied all charges and claims he is being made a scapegoat for the inaction of others”
(more on Papaconstantinou here, on Lagarde_list here.
KTG had also several posts on the issue with the most striking about the long journey of the list here.
It is not clear yet when the Special Court will come together.
PS How do we know that parliament elections are imminent? When the ghosts of the past come out with the slogan “Give justice to the folk, so that they will vote for us”.Worth notice is that dusty cases brought to justice always refer to non active politicians. Remember also the case of ex Finance Minister Papantoniou and ex Defense Minister Tsochatzopoulos? What a consistence. They are all PASOK…
