The Acting Chair of the ASA Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights Robin Mejia and ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein yesterday sent a
Georgiou was appointed by the Greek parliament in 2010 to head ELSTAT and bring about the
production of reliable Greek statistics. After many years of understated deficit and debt figures
reported by Greece, Georgiou recalculated official economic statistics according to European
Union (EU) law. Statistics produced under his leadership were validated and published by
Eurostat (the official statistics body of the EU in which Greece is a member) for five consecutive
years. ...
Yet, in 2013, Georgiou was accused of “undermining the national interest” and slapped with
criminal charges for “false statements and complicity against the State” for allegedly inflating
the Greek deficit and causing damages of 171 billion euro to the Greek state. Although various
judicial procedures have several times concluded the charges against Georgiou are baseless,
the charges keep being revived. In addition, in December, he was acquitted of related
misdemeanor charges for violation of duty, but that acquittal was reversed just 10 days later.
He is now to be retried for the same alleged crimes and thus subjected to double jeopardy.
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