Former finance minister George Papaconstantinou’s office director Chryssa Hatzi took the stand on Wednesday to testify before a special court trying the former official for allegedly tampering with the so-called Lagarde list by removing his relatives’ names from it. The Lagarde list, an electronic file with the names of roughly 2,000 Greeks with sizeable Swiss accounts in HSBC, was mishandled by the former Greek government. The list was hushed up rather than enter an investigation of those audited for income tax liabilities. The case opened on Wednesday is charging the former minister of tampering with a public document and attempted breach of trust.

Under oath, Hatzi said that Papaconstantinou had told her that he was expecting a confidential envelope from the Greek embassy in France. She received the envelope that was delivered by an employee at the Greek embassy in Paris. She said that it was not registered because she had orders to hand-deliver it to the former minister and she said that she was unaware of its contents.

During a meeting with Hatzi following the arrival of the envelope, Papaconstantinou had said that he had received information about 2-bln-euros worth of deposits in a Swiss bank and said that the list would be crosschecked and that a special financial crimes squad (SDOE) unit would be created to carry out the investigation. At the time she was not aware if the envelope had been handed to other associates of the minister. She underlined that there was security at the office and that nothing could be stolen from it.

During her examination and cross-examination, Hatzi had a very selective memory and was unable to answer all the questions placed to her citing memory lapses. One of the judges presiding over the case, Nikolaos Passos, said that Hatzi knew more than she was letting on, hence offering a veil of protection to Papaconstantinou. On her part, prosecutor Xeni Dimitriou-Vassilopoulou was outraged during a reference to the meeting that took place under Papaconstantinou’s leadership following the arrival of the CD of names that was attended by former head of the financial crimes squad (SDOE) Ioannis Diotis and Ioannis Kapeleris as well as legal adviser to the State Accounts Office Anastasios Banos. She expressed wonder at the increased duties that Hatzi had as well as the fact that she was allowed to participate in such a high level meeting.

The court adjourned until Thursday when more witnesses will be called to testify.