Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 12-10-04

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] No politicians on 'Lagarde list', Diotis tells Parliament committee

[01] No politicians on 'Lagarde list', Diotis tells Parliament committee

"No politician is on the list," Diotis said, adding that he had received a flash drive with the list from former finance minister George Papaconstantinou "informally" when the latter was moved to another ministry and had equally handed it on to the new finance minister PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos.amna

Diotis stressed that the evidence on the flash drive was "illegally material" obtained with the assistance of the secret services and could not be used as the basis of an investigation.

"These matters are handled by the Greek government. If it wanted, it could find a way to overcome the obstacles to using the evidence. I could not do anything else. If Mr. Venizelos had asked it of me, I would have carried out an investigation," he added.amna

Questioned about the flash drive's fate after Papaconstantinou left, Diotis said that he had given it to Venizelos and "explained my opinion that it could not stand up as acceptable evidence in court because it was the product of actions that were not legal and obtained with the assistance of secret services".amna

He also underlined that he had not made any other copies of the material, while the flash drive had at all times changed hands unofficially, without records or other documents. He said the information on the flash drive consisted of names and sums, similar to the records kept by banks.

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