In re Siemens: Court of Appeal Athens rules on the right to translation

In re Siemens: Court of Appeal Athens rules on the right to translation

 

In a much noted decision of July 12, 2016, the Court of Appeal Athens ruled that foreign defendants in the case of Siemens are entitled to a translated version of the indicting decision of the Judical Council in order to be able to effectively exercise their defence rights. The indiciting decision had been served on defendants counsel only in Greek language.

The Court admitted a request by defence counsel and ruled that the translation is mandatory under the EU Directive 2010/64 which Greece implemented in 2014. The hearing is expected to re-start in the first half of 2017.

In the Siemens case 50 Greek and 14 foreign individuals face charges of bribery and money laundering in relation to contracts awarded to the company in 2002 for the digitalization of telecommunications.

Ilias Anagnostopoulos and Ioannis Tolakis represent a former German top executive of Siemens AG throughout the proceedings.

An article by Ilias Anagnostopoulos was published in the daily newspaper “Kathimerini” on 19.7.2016.