ATHENS: Greece's parliament was expected to approve early on Tuesday the prosecution of former finance minister George Papaconstantinou for allegedly tampering with a confidential tax list during his term in office.
A majority of deputies from the conservative, socialist and moderate leftist parties were expected to demand Papaconstantinou's prosecution for breach of trust, document falsification and breach of duty.
Representatives of the three parties in a committee that has been investigating the issue since January had already called for Papaconstantinou's prosecution earlier this month.
The full parliament session will determine which of the charges, if not all, to wield against the 52-year-old former minister.
A judicial council will subsequently decide whether Papaconstantinou will face a special court.
He faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence if convicted on all charges.
The former socialist minister is suspected of tampering with a document containing the names of some 2,000 Greek citizens with accounts at HSBC bank in Switzerland in order to hinder a probe into tax evasion.
Papaconstantinou, who has retired from politics, is accused of deleting the names of three of his relatives from the list but claims he is innocent.
A senior prosecutor on Monday also ordered that two former heads of Greece's financial crimes squad should also be charged for failing to investigate the case.
Originally leaked by an HSBC employee, the list was sent to Papaconstantinou in 2010 by current IMF head Christine Lagarde who was France's finance minister at the time.
Local media have dubbed the scandal the "Lagarde list" affair.
Papaconstantinou helped set up the heavily indebted country's first austerity programme and European Union-IMF bailout deal in 2010.
He now risks becoming the first minister in over two decades to face prison.
In 1992, a major bank embezzlement scandal known as the Koskotas Affair saw then prime minister Andreas Papandreou and a handful of senior officials go on trial for failing to avert the collapse of the Bank of Crete, a suspected backer of the ruling socialist party.
Papandreou was acquitted and though some of the other defendants were initially convicted, none went behind bars.
A majority of deputies from the conservative, socialist and moderate leftist parties were expected to demand Papaconstantinou's prosecution for breach of trust, document falsification and breach of duty.
Representatives of the three parties in a committee that has been investigating the issue since January had already called for Papaconstantinou's prosecution earlier this month.
The full parliament session will determine which of the charges, if not all, to wield against the 52-year-old former minister.
A judicial council will subsequently decide whether Papaconstantinou will face a special court.
He faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence if convicted on all charges.
The former socialist minister is suspected of tampering with a document containing the names of some 2,000 Greek citizens with accounts at HSBC bank in Switzerland in order to hinder a probe into tax evasion.
Papaconstantinou, who has retired from politics, is accused of deleting the names of three of his relatives from the list but claims he is innocent.
A senior prosecutor on Monday also ordered that two former heads of Greece's financial crimes squad should also be charged for failing to investigate the case.
Originally leaked by an HSBC employee, the list was sent to Papaconstantinou in 2010 by current IMF head Christine Lagarde who was France's finance minister at the time.
Local media have dubbed the scandal the "Lagarde list" affair.
Papaconstantinou helped set up the heavily indebted country's first austerity programme and European Union-IMF bailout deal in 2010.
He now risks becoming the first minister in over two decades to face prison.
In 1992, a major bank embezzlement scandal known as the Koskotas Affair saw then prime minister Andreas Papandreou and a handful of senior officials go on trial for failing to avert the collapse of the Bank of Crete, a suspected backer of the ruling socialist party.
Papandreou was acquitted and though some of the other defendants were initially convicted, none went behind bars.
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