Ex-aide for former premier cleared in Lagarde list case
Stavros Papastavrou, an ex-aide of former conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras, has been cleared of all charges in connection with the so-called Lagarde list of wealthy Greek depositors at a Geneva branch of HSBC and other tax avoidance charges.
Speaking outside Greece’s Supreme Court, Papastavrou described himself as a victim of “political prosecution” due to his collaboration with the New Democracy party and the ex-premier.
“Justice had its say, however, despite efforts to manipulate it,” the lawyer said. “I waited six difficult years to get justice. And I finally got justice.”
The case against him emerged in 2015 during the then SYRIZA-Independent Greeks government’s term and was held up as a synonym of political corruption.
Papastavrou called on SYRIZA to apologize for his unjust targeting “as a first step so that no innocent person suffers everything that happened to me,” he said.
