Vaxevanis Acquited Over Lagarde List
- Written by E.Tsiliopoulos
The Misdemeanour Court acquitted journalist Kostas Vaxevanis for the publication the so-called 'Lagarde list' in his magazine Hot Doc a year earlier, upholding the verdict of a lower-level court. on Wednesday.
The panel of judges did not agree with the public prosecutor's argument that the publication of the details of depositors in a Swiss branch of HSBC was a violation of their right to privacy.
This is the second acquittal of the journalist and publisher in court after an appeal against the first ruling was lodged by the public prosecution.
The 'Lagarde list' was a list of the names of Greek nationals that had sizeable deposits at a Swiss branch of HSBC that came into the hands of French authorities and was sent to Greece by the then French finance minister Christine Lagarde.
Τhe list became the crux of a political scandal when it 'disappeared' for a space of months to reappear in 2012, precipitating the indictment of the finance minister of that time George Papaconstantinou.
