Giorgos Papaconstantinou

Former German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, widely regarded as the architect of austerity in eurozone crisis countries, said in an interview in the Financial Times on Friday that Greece should have taken a 10-year timeout from the bloc.

The United States was a "true mediator" between Athens and its international creditors at the peak of the Greek crisis and helped prevent the country's ouster from the eurozone on several occasions, Kathimerini's Washington correspondent, Katerina Sokou, said during a panel discussion on the subject of "The US Role in the Greek Debt Crisis."

A prosecutor on Friday called for a former head of the Financial Crime Squad (SDOE), Yiannis Diotis, to be cleared of any wrongdoing in the handling of the so-called Lagarde list of wealthy Greeks with Swiss bank deposits, named after former French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, now head of the International Monetary Fund.

Allegations made in a new book by former finance minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou that SYRIZA officials asked him to provide evidence that would incriminate his successor Evangelos Venizelos (photo) over the Lagarde list affair, have provoked a reaction from the leftist party and the ex-PASOK leader.

A special court set up to try former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou handed the former PASOK official a one-year suspended jail sentence on Tuesday despite finding him guilty of tampering with the Lagarde list of Greeks with deposits at the Geneva branch of HSBC.

The special court trying former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou, charged with criminal counts of doctoring a document and of attempted breach of faith, is expected to deliver its verdict on Tuesday afternoon, the state-run Athens Macedonian News Agency has reported.

If found guilty, Papaconstantinou could face a life sentence without extenuating circumstances.

The special court hearing the trial of former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou is on Tuesday due to deliver its verdict on whether the ex-PASOK politician was responsible for doctoring the Lagarde list of Greeks with deposits in Switzerland.

The prosecutor arguing the case against ex-Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou, accused of removing the names of three relatives from a list of suspected tax dodgers when he was in office, told a special court convened to try the former Socialist minister that there are no grounds for the charges to be dropped on the basis of the statute of limitations.

Former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou on Thursday told the special court where he is facing charges of doctoring the Lagarde list of Greeks with deposits in Switzerland that he did not remove the names of his relatives and that he is the victim of a set-up.

Ex-Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou will give evidence on Thursday in his trial for allegedly doctoring the Lagarde list of Greeks with deposits at the Geneva branch of HSBC with the aim of removing the names of his relatives.