Ex-Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, pressed charges for defamation against Kostas Vaxevanis, journalist and editor of the newspaper “Documento”, in response to a meme he posted on Twitter.
The ex-prime minister requested that Kostas Vaxevanis be arrested in the flagrante delicto procedure.
Police officers attempted to arrest him inside the court room, in which Kostas Vaxevanis was being tried on the charges pressed by Lina Stournara, businessman and wife of the Governor of the Central Bank of Greece, Yannis Stournaras. The charges had been pressed in response to the revelations of the magazine “HOT DOC” regarding the scandal of the Greek Centre of Disease Control and Prevention (in Greek “ΚΕΕΛΠΝΟ”) and the involvement of Mrs. Stournara, who, according to the auditors’ findings, undertook a project of 1.3 million euros, following what was seen as unusual procedures.
The court’s chair asked the policemen to leave the room and made clear that they could proceed with the arrest after the end of the trial.
Kostas Vaxevanis was acquitted, the court having accepted that both the media reports on the scandal and the involvement of Mrs. Stournara in the case were true.
Afterwards, the journalist and editor of “Documento”, appeared before the police department and was taken to the prosecutor who ordered his release after appointing a proper trial.
The charges for defamation pressed by Antonis Samaras for a meme, triggered intense disapproval and negative comments, given that for the first time a politician and especially an ex-prime minister pressed charges for a …meme.
It should be noted that, following a decision of the Greek Parliament which took into account a case file conveyed by the Anti-corruption Prosecution Office, Antonis Samaras is being impeached before an investigation committee which will examine allegations and evidence involving him in the Novartis scandal.
