(Greek tax dodgers) Lagarde list publisher returns to Greek court months after being exonerated

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

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.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/lagarde-list-publisher-returns-greek-court-kostas-vaxevanis

[dipsydoodle]

1. As a reply notes

they are shooting the messenger.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Second trial of Greek editor who published Lagarde list is postponed

The retrial of a Greek newspaper editor accused of violating privacy laws when he revealed the names of suspected tax evaders with accounts in Switzerland has been postponed until October.

Kostas Vaxevanis, who revealed the identities of 2,059 wealthy Greeks on the so-called Lagarde list, was told on Monday morning that the hearing had been deferred.

"I sat in the dock with the three-member panel of judges going in and out of the room for more than two hours before it was decided that the trial should be postponed," he told the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/10/trial-greek-editor-lagarde-list-postponed

[Dr. Strange]

3. Good Lord.

In a case that has highlighted the fragility of press freedom in crisis-hit Greece, Vaxevanis was ordered to stand trial for a second time in less than a year by the public prosecutor's office in Athens. The verdict of a lower-level court acquitting him of the charge last November was deemed to be flawed.

"flawed"