Papandreou Will Not Testify At Lagarde List Probe, To Submit Deposition

credit protothema

Former Prime Minister George Papandreou is not expected to testify to the parliamentary committee investigating the controversial Lagarde List scandal, but is rather going to submit written deposition (which was probably prepared for him by his staff of advisers).

The parliamentary is investigating whether or not ex-Finance Minister Giorgos Papakonstantinou tampered with the so-called Lagarde, which is a list of Greek depositors (or possible tax evaders) with fat accounts at the HSBC bank in Geneva.

The head of the committee, or New Democracy's Christos Markoyiannakis, had apparently spoken with Papandreou last week- to ask him how he would be responding to a summons to appear before the committee to testify and Papandreou answered that "if" he had time "out of his obligations in the United States" he would make an appearance.

"If" - Oh brother!

Mr. Papandreou forgets that his first obligation is to the Greek parliament where he was elected to represent the people of Achaia. He does not grace us with his presence... He was summoned to testify before a panel of officials that right now is judging whether or not George Papakostantinou should go to jail!

Besides, the evidence filed by former chief SDOE Ioannis Diotis in the parliamentary preliminary committee in March raised relentless questions about the role of the Hellenic National Intelligence Agency, George Papandreou and his former minister George Papakonstantinou in the handling of the Lagarde list.

More specifically, Diotis filed the electronic correspondence he had with Papakonstantinou few days before proceeding to copy the scandalous USB. Out of the messages exchanged between both men it looks like Papandreou and the former head of National Intelligence Kostas Bikas had full knowledge of the list and closely monitored its "exploitation".


So was Papandreou informed? No one knows, but the majority of the public already believes that he was very well aware of what was going on, as was his successor Evangelos Venizelos. Also, the general public is already convinced that Papakostantinou is responsible in this case, but at the same time most believe that the secret behind the Lagarde List was well known by all of PASOK's leadership past and present (Papandreou and Venizelos).