Kostas Vaxevanis will again be tried for breaking privacy laws after publishing names of 2,059 suspected tax dodgers
A Greek newspaper editor accused of breaking privacy laws when he published the names of suspected tax dodgers with deposits in Switzerland is to be retried this week in a case that has raised howls of protest over press censorship in the crisis-hit country.
Seven months after being exonerated by a tribunal in Athens, Kostas Vaxevanis will be brought before a court to face the same charge on Monday. "It is tragic that instead of going after tax evaders, it is me who is being put on trial when an official investigation has already proved that the list was utterly mishandled," he told the Guardian.
"None of this would have come out had we not published the names," he added, referring to the 2,059 wealthy Greeks on the so-called Lagarde list.
The hearing, made necessary when the public prosecutor's office in Athens invalidated the first verdict after declaring it erroneous, comes as a parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the dossier enters a critical stage.
The investigation took an unexpected turn when MPs voted to step up charges against former finance minister George Papaconstantinou, who was accused of dereliction of duty after Vaxevanis revealed the list in the bi-monthly magazine Hot Doc.
Papaconstantinou, who left politics as a result of this, was given the names of Greeks with holdings in the Geneva branch of HSBC by his then French counterpart, Christine Lagarde, and has been charged with doctoring the list to remove three of his relatives from it.
Lagarde, now head of the International Monetary Fund, says she handed Papaconstantinou the data – originally stolen by an HSBC employee – on the premise he would use it to pursue tax dodgers.
In a secret ballot last week, conducted on the basis of the inquiry's findings, parliament voted to toughen charges against Papaconstantinou, accusing him of criminal breach of faith. The offence carries a prison sentence.
"The decision to widen the case against Papaconstaninou will mean the committee will have to sit longer," said Vaxevanis. "As several of my lawyers are part of the inquiry, we will request the trial is postponed."
Deferred or not, the hearing coincides with increasing popular demands for punishment to be meted out to politicians, who are widely perceived to have played a central role in bringing Greece to the point of economic collapse.
Plummeting living standards and relentless austerity measures have harshened the political climate. In an atmosphere thick with resentment and rage, Papaconstantinou is seen as the architect of Greece's first bailout – a rescue programme that even the IMF concedes was botched.
The former LSE-trained economist told parliament last week that he had been scapegoated by a political establishment whose credibility has been shattered by the crisis and the measures successive governments have been forced to take.
"The aim here is not to serve justice, unfortunately, the aim is to find a political victim," said Papaconstantinou. "The truth is that, as finance minister, I was forced to make cuts so that my country wouldn't collapse."
A dramatic few weeks lie ahead as the parliamentary committee prepares to end its investigation by questioning Papaconstantinou and his relatives. If Vaxevanis is tried and found guilty it will add to the turmoil.
Vaxevanis has insisted he is willing to go to prison to highlight press censorship in a country where media owners are often in cahoots with government interests.
"Vaxevanis has done nothing wrong," says Giorgos Kyrtsos, a prominent political commentator and publisher of the self-financed Free Press in Athens. "Once again, this trial proves that far from being independent, the judiciary system in this country is politically controlled by the state."
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