The misdemeanour courts have found investigative journalist Kostas Vaxevanis innocent for the publication of the “Lagarde List” in the Hot Doc magazine he publishes, despite the prosecutor proposing a guilty verdict. Mr. Vaxevanis was back on trial for a second time, after the prosecution appealed an innocent verdict last year for being “legally incorrect”.
Ultimately courts did not accept the prosecutor’s claim that the publication of the list constituted a violation of personal information. While the prosecutor argued that the publication of details without consent was illegal, the journalist explained that he never claimed that the people contained in the list were guilty of tax evasion or any other crime.
The journalist claimed that there was “a cover-up” under way and that the intention of the list publication was to “reveal the system of corruption that is oppressing the country and is contained in the list”. Mr. Vaxevanis also explained that other countries took advantage of equivalent lists and that he never claimed that the people contained in the list were guilty of tax evasion or other crimes.
