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December 11, 2014

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Supreme Court’s Judicial Council Refers Papakonstantinou to Special Court

Former Minister of Finance George Papakonstantinou was referred to the Special Court on Thursday by the Supreme Court’s Judicial Council, on charges of distorting documents and attempted infidelity.

The Judicial Council cleared Papakonstantinou of the breach of conduct charges and at the same time also cleared three of his family members of instigation charges, in relation to accounts contained in the controversial Lagarde List which the former Minister is accused of tampering.

The 'Lagarde list' is an electronic file that was sent to the Greek finance ministry by French authorities several years ago, containing the names of Greeks with sizable deposits in the Geneva-based branch of HSBC. It was received when Papakonstantinou was finance minister, under the (very controversial) George Papandreou government.

When the list was sent to Greece, it suddenly disappeared and only resurfaced after several months, without any action to follow up the information it contained.

The USB stick was eventually given to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras by none other than Evangelos Venizelos -who apparently succeeded Papakonstantinou as finance minister-.

The deception was actually revealed after French authorities provided a second copy of the list to Greek authorities and Venizelos was forced to materialize the USB stick. Further investigation showed that the copies in the hands of Greek authorities had been tampered with and some names removed, including depositors that were first cousins with Papakonstantinou.

As such, the public prosecutor that was assigned to the case proposed that Papakonstantinou be indicted on charges of breach of faith, violation of duty and doctoring a document. At the same time he also proposed that his cousin Helen Papakonstantinou, her husband Simeon Sikiaridis and Andreas Rossonis also face the same fate.

The proposal was made several months ago to the Judicial Council, which then convened so as to deliver the relevant Ordinance.

The ordinance that was issued today is irrevocable (ie not subject to any appeal) and is scheduled to be indulged within a ten day period of its release to Papakostadinou as well as to the President of the Greek Parliament.

Now that the ordinance refers Papakonstadinou to trial, the Head of the Greek Parliament has to hold a draw, which will choose the members of the Supreme Court and the State Council that are to rule the case. Basically he has to draw 13 names, and six more alternate names so that the formation of the Special Court (council of judges) is achieved.

The members of the Supreme Court are expected to number seven and six more of the CoE, while the highest ranking member of the Supreme Court is going to exercise presidential duties.

As such, the President of the Special Court, after receiving the list with the names that were drawn in Parliament, must  set a court date within 60 days, along with the place of the official court meeting and the list of witnesses.

Papakonstantinou, who has the right to be represented with up to three lawyers, also has the right not to appear in court. Nonetheless the case will still stand trial whether or not he is there, as was the case with Andreas Papandreou in the Koskotas scandal trial in April of 1991.

It should be noted that Papakonstantinou is not protected by the statue of limitations, which dictates that offenses allegedly committed by ex-ministers expire if two parliaments have sat since the offense.

Let us not forget that the case also accused the former head of the Financial Crime squad Yiannis Diotis and Yiannis Kapeleris of foul play.

Diotis, who was given a copy of the Lagarde list on a memory stick by Papakonstantinou, is alleged to have modified it and faces charges of stealing an official document, while Diotis’s predecessor Kapeleris, who Papakonstantinou gave a sample of 20 names from the list to investigate, faces charges of breach of faith.

Papakonstantinou has kept low after being released on bail, but is still required to appear before police authorities every 15 days. He has denied all charges and claims that he is being made a scapegoat for the inaction of others (meaning Venizelos) and his later departure from government.

The indictment of Papakonstantinou, who undoubtedly has enormous responsibilities in this scandalous case, simply reminds us of how corrupt and distraught the whole political system in Greece actually is.

HellasFrappe also firmly believes that this very same "system" has manipulated the financial crisis so as to acquit people like George Papandreou, and EU puppet Evangelos Venizelos. However, as with every crime there is never a perfect crime, so once you do the crime sooner or later you will have to pay the time.

In any case, George Papakonstantino will be the first politician after the late Andreas Papandreou, Menio Koutsogiorga, Dimitri Tsovola, Panagiotis Roumeliotis and George Petsos who will face a Special Court.

Let us hope he begins talking....

*Editor's Note - The PASOK party and three decades of proven scandals... No the truth is not a technological breakdown in the "system" it is simply the the road to hell. - The song below is dedicated exclusively to the once mighty PASOK party that once again proved to us how rotten -and corrupt to the core- it really is.-)





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