Former New Democracy MEP Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou convicted of violating official secrecy and personal data by emailing expatriates in the run-up to the 2024 European elections.
Eleni Stamatoukou
Former MEP Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou. Photo: Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou/Facebook.
Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou, a former MEP for the ruling New Democracy party, was convicted on Monday of leaking the email addresses of Greek expatriates during the run-up to the 2024 European Parliament elections.
“Today’s decision by the first-instance three-judge criminal court … marks a good day for the rule of law in Greece,” Vasilis Sotiropoulos, one of three lawyers who represented 90 Greeks abroad who were victims of the leak, wrote on Facebook.
“Today’s court decision does not affect the presumption of innocence of the defendants, which applies until their eventual irrevocable conviction,” he added.
The Athens Three-Member Misdemeanour Court on Monday declared Asimakopoulou guilty at first instance, as well as the former Secretary General of the Ministry of the Interior, Michalis Stavrianoudakis, of violating official secrecy as well as personal data. Asimakopoulou was sentenced to 20 months in prison and Stavrianoudakis to 18 months.
Menios Koromilas, then organisational secretary of Local Government and Crisis Management of the New Democracy party, and Nikos Theodoropoulos the then party official for the diaspora, were also found guilty of violating personal data and sentenced to 12 and eight months in prison respectively.
The court suspended their sentences for three years due to their previous lawful life.
Greek expatriates posted on social media in March 2024 that they had received an advertising email from Asimakopoulou, saying the material was sent to email addresses they had used to register on the overseas voter lists for the Greek general elections in 2023, mainly lists held by the Ministry of the Interior.
The Greek Data Protection Authority, DPA, after investigating the case, imposed a fine of 400,000 euros on the Ministry of the Interior and 40,000 euros on Asimakopoulou. The Council of State annulled the fine imposed on the ministry, however, stating that the DPA’s decision was not sufficiently justified.
The case is expected to continue at the Court of Appeal.
