ASA, ISI and RSS letter to the Prime Minister of Greece

Regarding the ongoing legal proceedings against Andreas Georgiou.

His Excellency Kyriakos Mitsotakis
Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic
General Secretariat of the Prime Minister
Maximos Mansion
Herod Atticus 19
10674 Athens, Greece

Your Excellency, 

We write as leaders of professional statistical associations regarding the ongoing legal proceedings concerning Andreas Georgiou, head of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) from 2010 to 2015. For a full decade now, we have witnessed with dismay and concern the prosecutions and investigations of Dr. Georgiou for his work for Greece as the most senior official statistician. Most recently, his appeal of a civil suit judgment against him was rejected and the charge of “simple slander” was upheld by the Greek Court of Appeals, making his assets in Greece subject to seizure. He was prosecuted and found guilty for defending the official statistics ELSTAT produced under his leadership, even though they had been repeatedly independently verified by the European Union’s statistical office, Eurostat.  It is clear to any objective observer that these legal proceedings are part of a sustained backlash against Dr. Georgiou, which threatens the value of official statistics both in Greece and around the world.  

The official statistics produced under Dr. Georgiou’s leadership have been accepted by all Greek governments and parliaments since their publication. Our professional statistical associations and others have formally issued a Commendation to Dr. Georgiou to acknowledge his upholding of the highest professional standards in his public service in the pursuit of integrity of statistical systems. Despite all this, Dr. Georgiou continues to be penalized and humiliated in Greece for upholding professional standards of honesty, accuracy, and integrity.  

Our concerns are manyfold. The continued prosecution of Dr. Georgiou has damaged the scientific integrity of the fully validated work by ELSTAT since 2011. The prosecutions and legal proceedings against Dr. Georgiou also undermine the current production of Greek official statistics given the unmistakable signals it sends to Greece’s official statisticians. In addition, the continued legal proceedings against Dr. Georgiou signal to the outside world a lack of support for accurate and objective statistics by Greece. Finally, the prosecutions and legal harassment pursued over a decade, and continuing to this day with the “simple slander” case, against Dr. Georgiou violate his human rights. We note that the United States Department of State has mentioned Mr. Georgiou’s case in both its 2019 and 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Greece.  

We call for an end to the now 10-year persecution of Andreas Georgiou and his full exoneration, in consequence of the UN Fundamental Principles of Statistics and the EU Statistical Law (223/20090), thereby signaling Greece’s commitment to accurate and ethical government statistics. 

Sincerely, 

Katherine B. Ensor 
2022 President  
American Statistical Association 

Stian Westlake
Chief Executive
Royal Statistical Society

Stephen Penneck
President 
International Statistical Institute 
 

Dated 7 October 2021