ECHR convicts Greece for violating former head statistician’s right to fair trial
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said on Tuesday that Greece had violated the right of Andreas Georgiou, the former head of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), to a fair hearing, when a top local court denied his request to refer a legal question concerning his case to the EU Court of Justice.
“The court unanimously declares the application admissible; holds that there has been a violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention,” the Strasbourg Court’s ruling said, adding that Greece must take the necessary measures “to ensure that the proceedings before the Court of Cassation are reopened, if requested” to “redress for the violation of the applicant’s rights.”
Georgiou headed ELSTAT between 2010 and 2015 and had been accused in Greece of falsifying budget data in order to justify the country’s first international bailout, an accusation for which has already been cleared twice.
However, he received a two-year suspended sentence over his handling of how ELSTAT’s board of directors had been briefed.
He was acquitted in the first instance but the decision was appealed and the case was tried in an appeals court which convicted him.
He then appealed to the Supreme Court, requesting that it refer a question to the European Court to clarify what European law provides regarding the responsibility of statistical authority heads, but his request was denied.
