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ATHENS – Andreas Georgiou, Greece’s former statistics boss, continues his more than a decade-long fight to clear his name after Athens accused him of exaggerating fiscal figures during the debt crisis and In this way the country’s financial crisis was further increased.
On Monday, Greece’s Supreme Court will hear Georgiou’s appeal against a civil conviction for “simple slander” in relation to comments he made defending his calculations. It is one of several legal cases Georgios has fought since officials in Athens first questioned his figures and blamed him for forcing the country to accept huge debts from its creditors and harsh bailout terms. being done.
Georgios, who now lives in the US, has drawn widespread support from international economists and statisticians groups, who argue that he has been scapegoated by Greece’s political class, which refuses to accept that the crisis has lasted for years. It was the result of financial extravagance of Rs.
Observers also argue that the case is a test of the Greek judicial system and whether it can maintain independence from politics.
“Giorgio did his duty like any other public servant around the world. He was prosecuted and persecuted for his service to his country,” said Ted Truman, a senior fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. “In the interest of their country, the Greek authorities must stop the ‘Big Lie’ and the Greek judicial system must play its due role in the process.”
number game
A former International Monetary Fund official, Georgios was appointed president of the Greek statistics service, Allstat, in August 2010 after it emerged that the Greek government had underreported debt levels and deficits, leading to the EU-IMF financial bailout program. was built.
But Georgiou’s calculation that the country’s deficit was even higher than previously estimated, at 15.4 percent of GDP, sent shock waves throughout the country.
His findings were validated by Eurostat, the European Union’s official statistics office, but he faced domestic resistance to adopting EU statistical standards.
Georgios was hit with a series of lawsuits initiated by members of the Alstat board, who were supported directly or indirectly by successive Greek governments and politicians in Athens.
He was accused of artificially inflating deficit figures as part of a plot to introduce severe austerity in Greece, but these charges, brought by Greek prosecutors, were dismissed several times by various courts and the case was closed. was formally closed in 2019.
Georgiou was also accused of dereliction of duty, primarily for refusing to approve revised deficit numbers before sending them to Eurostat to the board members of Allstat. Although initially acquitted of the charge in 2016, the case was reopened and he was convicted in 2017, receiving a two-year suspended prison sentence following a successful appeal by prosecutors.
He then requested another trial and key questions in the case were brought to the Court of Justice of the European Union, which Athens rejected. The statisticians are now awaiting a decision from the European Court of Human Rights, which is expected soon, on whether their rights have been violated in this case.
Monday’s appeal relates to a civil defamation case brought by Georgiou’s predecessor as statistics chief, who accused Georgiou of defamation for saying that his own figures had been repeatedly validated and misreported prior reports. The integrity was questioned.
An EU investigation has indeed found that Greece systematically undervalued public spending and provided false data to Eurostat in the 2000s. But under Greek law, a person could still be held liable for “simple slander” if their statements were true and harmed the reputation of the plaintiff.
Georgiou was ordered to pay her previous €10,000 in compensation and interest as well as the complainant’s legal costs from 2014. The court said that it should also publish the text of the court’s decision in a Greek newspaper as a public apology.
Georgiou has always defended his figures and argued that the head of Allstat has full responsibility for the fiscal figures. He is supported by the heads of national statistics agencies around the world and last month, statisticians held a rally in his favor outside the Greek embassy in Washington.
Truman of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center said several important principles are at stake in Georgiou’s legal case.
“First is the integrity of the Greek statistical system that Georgios reformed,” he said. “Then there is respect and demonstration for official figures and statisticians around the world that the Greek judicial system is no longer dominated by partisan politics, and to compensate for the damage done to Georgiou’s reputation and personal life.”