The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) acquitted today the former head of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), who in 2010 was at the center of the debt crisis.

Andreas Georgiou, the head of ELSTAT from 2010 to 2015, was convicted in 2017 in the second degree for dereliction of duty to a two-year suspended prison sentence because he simultaneously held a position at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Greek judiciary also accused him of failing for 10 months to convene ELSTAT’s board of directors and of disclosing financial information without the consent of that body.

Andreas Georgiou appealed against the decision, but his appeal was rejected “without the slightest justification”, according to him, the ECtHR reminds.

He appealed to the European judges invoking the article of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to a fair trial.

In today’s decision, the Strasbourg court considers that “the reopening of the proceedings conducted before the annulment court would be an appropriate means of restoring the plaintiff’s violated rights.”

In the same case, Andreas Georgiou was accused of deliberately inflating government deficit figures in 2010 so as to force his country to adopt drastic fiscal measures. This charge was ultimately not brought against him.

During Andreas Georgiou’s tenure at ELSTAT from 2010 to 2015, the public deficit was revised upwards, from 13.6% of GDP to 15.4%, and the debt increased from 115.1% to 126 .8%, while during the previous years Athens systematically hid the economic situation of the country.

This upward revision of the deficit marked the beginning of the debt crisis and was followed by the participation of the IMF on the side of the eurozone in the first support plan for Greece in 2010.

According to his critics, Andreas Georgiou was also at the time a member of the board of directors of the IMF, but his lawyers assure that this only lasted three to four months.

The intervention of the IMF had caused reactions in the country, led by the left of Alexis Tsipras, who was then in the opposition.

Andreas Georgiou was publicly defended in 2016 by the European Union.

Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thiessen stated that “the data on the Greek debt in the period from 2010 to 2015 was reliable and had been communicated accurately”.