Galery

1

Publications in the Sunday press, involving former Prime Minister George Papandreou's mother, Margarita Papandreou, in the "Lagarde list", have provoked sharp reactions from both of them. Their response to the articles in "To Vima" and "To Proto Thema" newspapers was very fast and fierce. The two newspapers claim that the name of Mrs. Papandreou was mentioned in the documents presented to Parliament in connection with the notorious scandal of people who have exported their money to foreign banks.

The former Chairman of PASOK spoke of "interests living on the toil of the country, planning and consistently carrying out slanderous operations" against him. At the same time, his mother explained that her patience was exhausted and from now on justice would deal with this. She wondered what was behind this attack and characterised without hesitation the behaviour of the management of the two newspapers as unmanly and unethical because they have not adhered to basic journalistic principles and have not asked for her opinion on the case. Her statement says: "'То Vima' and 'To Proto Thema''s editors-in-chief are experienced enough to know that they have to ask me at least one simple question to investigate the case before publishing anything. They should have presented both points of view. Faint-hearted and unethical, they didn't do so. How can it be possible that they have published bombastic headlines based on lies and intrigues? Why are there so many lies? Why are there so many attacks?".

Margarita Papandreou added that her family has never yielded to persecution, nor has it stooped before those who attack it today. And probably, Papandreou's name is still alive because of these recent attacks. Mrs. Papandreou noted with pride that three Prime Ministers of the family have encountered the Establishment's parasitic interests and the family will continue to withstand these with a greater faith in its principles, values and democracy. "We fought, we are fighting and we will continue fighting for all this, while those continue selling the country and democracy. From now on, justice will speak," added Margarita Papandreou.

George Papandreou said in turn that the publication of 2 December in "To Vima" and "To Proto Thema" newspapers apparently intended to attack him and his politics against political and private interests of any kind, adding that he is fighting for a Greece free of clientelist perceptions, attitudes and behaviour, and against everything that led to the Greece of 2009. Papandreou added that it is a vulgar attack, led by those who have "heard" and published rumours without prior investigation. But, according to him, everyone understands that this is a defamatory campaign because they are apparently afraid that whatever they do, whatever lies they tell, he will always be against them.

The questions arising from the case of the "Lagarde list" are many:

Does Margarita Papandreou have a bank account at HSBC in Switzerland or not? According to the list, the money in it is 550 million dollars. Is it hers or does the money belong to a businessman who lives in Israel? Was this deposit made on behalf of an existing figurehead before or after 2002?

The case file was sent to Parliament after an investigation by prosecutors Peponis and Mouzakitis, but until last Friday, it had not reached the committee responsible for further investigation. However, a series of data contained in it leaked publicly, among which the name of the former Prime Minister's mother. It is expected, however, that France will send a new original copy of this list, so that it will be compared with the currently available versions in Greece, which contain a different number of people involved.

It all began with the testimony of the Head of the Office for Investigation of Financial Crimes because of the insistence of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. Stelios Stasinopoulos testified on 3 October 2012, and based himself on a conversation between managers of the Office of the previous day. He claimed that during this conversation Head of Control of the Office Nikos Lekas, when asked if he knew the political parties involved in the "Lagarde list", replied that he had heard that Margarita Papandreou stood behind the name of employee Maria Pandeli, holder of the 550 million bank account. That employee is an actual person, an assistant to businessman Sabbi Mioni, who was born in Greece, but has been living in Tel Aviv for years. Mioni officially said that Maria Pandeli manages his capital and therefore she has an account at HSBC in her name. He also claimed that Stavros Papastavrou, whose name is also on the list and who is an advisor to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, also administers his capital, and that this capital is absolutely legitimate. The 550 million dollar bank account is the largest on the list and corresponds to one third of all deposits.

Stelios Stasinopoulos's testimony was confirmed by Head of the Office's Regional Department Evangelos Karamanos, who swore that, at the meeting of five senior officials of the Office, Margarita Papandreou's name was mentioned. Specifically, Nikos Lekas said that according to his own information, it is she who stands behind the largest bank account.