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Greek court acquits publisher in "Lagarde List" case

02 November 2012 01:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A Greek court on Thursday acquitted a magazine publisher of breaching privacy laws by publishing a list of 2,000 Greeks with big deposits in a Swiss bank, APA reports.

Costas Vaxevanis, 46, was arrested during the weekend for publishing the so-called "Lagarde List" which French authorities gave to Athens in 2010. He had accused the Greek authorities of failing to use the list to probe into possible tax evasions by the rich depositors over the past two years.

The case, which has fueled anger of recession and austerity-hit Greeks disgruntled by the government-prescribed austerity measures, has also dragged former Finance Ministers Yorgos Papaconstantinou and Evangelos Venizelos into the spotlight.

Papaconstantinou and Venizelos have already testified over the past few weeks during an investigation carried out by a parliamentary committee as witnesses.

They have argued that the list, originally leaked by a bank employee and passed to Greece in 2010 by France’s then finance minister Christine Lagarde, who is now IMF chief, was of no significant value to debt-laden Greece’s efforts to address tax evasion and raise revenues.

In addition, they cited legal issues in regards to its use, since it was considered stolen data.

The list resurfaced in late September this year, as Greek media investigated several lists of politicians who are said to be under probe for corruption scandals.

Vaxevanis claimed in his trial on Thursday that he was prosecuted "for political reasons" and that officials who did not go after tax dodgers should face prosecution instead.

Greeks citizens who protest the tough austerity drive launched in 2010 in return of vital international loans to avoid default, also expressed frustration and anger at the inability of officials to counter chronic wide spread tax evasion, which is considered to be a key contributor to the Greek debt crisis.