



Greek Former Finance Minister of George Papandreou’s PASOK administration between October 2009 and June 2011, Giorgos Papakonstantinou, is expected to appear before a Special Court tomorrow in Athens, in accordance with the ministerial responsibility law. Mr. Papakonstantinou is facing charges of allegedly tampering with a list containing the names of more than 2,000 Greeks with cash deposits at a Geneva branch of HSBC in an effort to remove the names of three of his relatives.

His family members (cousin Eleni Papakonstantinou, her husband Simeon Sikiaridis and Andreas Rossonis) initially engaged in the Lagarde List case on charges of inciting to distort a public document, have not been referred to the Special Court since they are all cleared of the charges, as it was proved they were committed by the Former Minister himself. The decision regarding Papakonstantinou was taken by a majority vote of four to one by an irrevocable decree of the Special Court’s judicial council.

The judges of the special court, which is convening for the first time in more than 20 years, were drawn by the Greek Parliament. Presiding will be Nikolaos Passos and the prosecutor will be Xeni Dimitriou-Vassilopoulou. It should be noted that the last time a Minister was referred to the Special Court was 25 years ago, in 1989, regarding the infamous Koskotas case. Those referred were Menios Koutsogiorgas, Panagiotis Roumeliotis, Giorgos Petsos and Dimitris Tsovolas.



