29 October 2012

Greek journalist in court over bank data

A GREEK investigative journalist has appeared in court after publishing names from an alleged list of Swiss bank accounts that the Athens government has been accused of trying to cover up.
Costas Vaxevanis, a veteran television journalist who is editor of the Hot Doc magazine, published the list in its inaugural issue on Saturday.
It included more than 2000 names, allegedly from a controversial list of HSBC account holders that was originally leaked by a bank employee and passed to Greece in 2010 by France's then finance minister Christine Lagarde.

Vaxevanis says he received the information in an anonymous letter whose sender claimed to have received it from a politician.

He has been charged with breach of privacy and faces a maximum three-year jail sentence if convicted.
"Instead of arresting thieves and ministers breaking the law they want to arrest the truth," Vaxevanis commented on his Twitter account on Saturday.

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