issued by the Registrar of the Court
ECHR 080 (2023)
14.03.2023
Judgments of 14 March 2023
The European Court of Human Rights has today given notification in writing of one Chamber
judgment1 which is summarised below.
This judgment is available only in English.
Georgiou v. Greece (application no. 57378/18)
The applicant, Andreas Georgiou, is a Greek national who was born in 1960 and lives in Darnestown
(Maryland, the United States). He was president of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) from
2010-15.
Mr Georgiou was charged with breach of duty arising from allegedly holding a post at the
International Monetary Fund while at ELSTAT, failure to hold a board meeting for ten months, and
releasing national fiscal information without the consent of the ELSTAT board. Although he was
acquitted at first instance, in 2017 he was convicted on appeal of the third of those charges and
found not guilty of the rest. The case concerns an appeal on points of law that Mr Georgiou lodged
with the Court of Cassation following that conviction.
Relying on Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial) of the European Convention on Human Rights,
Mr Georgiou complains that the Court of Cassation rejected his request for a preliminary reference
of a legal question to the Court of Justice of the European Union without any justification.
Violation of Article 6 § 1
Just satisfaction:
The Court considered that reopening of the proceedings before the Court of Cassation would
constitute appropriate redress for the violation of the applicant’s rights. The applicant made no
request in respect of pecuniary or non-pecuniary damage or in respect of costs and expenses.
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1
Under Articles 43 and 44 of the Convention, Chamber judgments are not final. During the three-month period following a judgment’s
delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a panel of five
judges considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and deliver a final
judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day. Under Article 28 of the Convention,
judgments delivered by a Committee are final.
Once a judgment becomes final, it is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for supervision of its execution.
Further information about the execution process can be found here: www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/execution.
