A lengthy legal saga for the former head of Greece's statistics authority, Andreas Georgiou, continued unabated over the weekend, as the criminal division of the country's supreme court rejected a motion by the latter to quash a lower court breach of trust conviction.
The misdemeanor conviction stemmed from an indictment whereby Georgiou was charged with not officially briefing other board members of Greece's statistics authority, EL.STAT, back in 2009 and 2010, that he provided the relevant European statistics authority with data on the country's ballooning budget deficit for 2009.
According to Georgiou's critics, mostly within Greece and by the more populist quarters of the political spectrum, he intentionally inflated the budget deficit for 2009 in order to provide an alibi for a Papandreou government - which assumed power in October 2009 - to justify and secure an IMF bailout.
Conversely, Georgiou's supporters, including many European and Eurozone leaders, maintained that he resisted attempts to "cook" the Greek state's finances.
