Former Statistical Authority chief may be tried third time over 2009 deficit figures

The case of former Hellenic Statistical Authority chief Andreas Georgiou has become a thriller, as Appellate Court Prosecutor Stelios Kostarelos, in his reccomendation to the Appellate Court Judges Council, says that Georgiou should be tried on felony charges of false certification, as regards allegedly pumping up the data on Greece’s debt in 2009, and thus pushing Greece into the bailout memorandum.

The Appellate Court Council will have the last word.

EU officials have repeatedly denounced the prosecution of Georgiou, which they view as shameful harassment, arguing that he just did his job properly.

In the third successive examination of his case, following two acquittal rulings by the Appellate Court Judges Council, and even though the case had reached the Supreme Court twice, the prosecutor maintains that he should be put on trial. The prosecutor is effectively adopting the assertions of two former members of the Authority, Zoi Georganta and Nikolaos Logothetis.

Georgiou’s lawyer, Konstantinos Papadiamantis, underlines that judicial authorities did not examine European officials as witnesses, with the rationale that the accounting method (used for calculating the deficit) meets European standards.

The case file includes a Eurostat document approving the calculation of the 2009 deficit, in accordance with the unswerving rules that still apply to ELSTAT’s calculations.

Georgiou stresses that the 2009 debt level was accepted by the government itself, and that is was on that basis that three loan contracts with Greece’s partners were signed, resulting in funding for the country.