Prosecutor seeks conviction of former MEP Asimakopoulou for leaking diaspora voter emails

The trial stems from the unauthorised use of email addresses and phone numbers of Greeks abroad just before the 2024 European Parliament elections. Prosecutor Emilia Sofia Meri told the court that Asimakopoulou and former Interior Ministry general secretary Michalis Stavrianoudakis had acted with full knowledge of the breach.

The charges

Asimakopoulou and Stavrianoudakis face two counts: breach of service confidentiality and violation of personal data protection laws. Two other party officials, Menios Koromilas and Nikos Theodoropoulos, were charged only with the data protection offence. The prosecutor distinguished between the defendants, arguing that the latter had merely forwarded the file without intent to harm.

Stavrianoudakis and Asimakopoulou must be declared guilty on both counts because they knew very well what they were doing.

The prosecutor's reasoning

The court heard that Asimakopoulou had requested, both verbally and in writing, a list of New Democracy party members. Instead, she received a spreadsheet containing the personal details of more than 25,000 diaspora voters, drawn from the Interior Ministry's electoral roll. She then used that data to email campaign messages to them from her office.

While the ND list had 1,140 registered, the file Ms. Asimakopoulou received concerned more than 25,000 voters. Consent of the data subject is necessary before processing, not after.

The role of the 'postmen'

Koromilas, then secretary for local government and crisis management, and Theodoropoulos, then diaspora secretary of the party, were described by the prosecutor as "postmen". She argued they had merely transmitted the file, not knowing its intended use, and thus lacked the intent required for the confidentiality charge. They face only the data protection count.

The title of the file makes it immediately recognisable to anyone who read it. Its use by the two was without intent to harm. I consider that they did not even know the use that would be made of it.

Data protection and consent

The prosecutor emphasised that email addresses and phone numbers are protected personal data. Election roll data without those fields may be provided to parliamentary candidates upon request, but the leaked file went far beyond that. She told the court that the claims by the defendants that they were unaware of the contents were invalid, as the file's title made its origin clear.

Personal data concern self-determination – what I want others to know about me. I will give my details when I choose, not because someone found them without my permission.

The court has not yet delivered its verdict. If convicted, Asimakopoulou and Stavrianoudakis face penalties for the two offences, while Koromilas and Theodoropoulos could be sanctioned for the data breach.