Attac Ireland

Another World is Possible

  • 
  • 
  • 
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are?
    • Mission Statement
  • Campaigns
    • EuroMarches 2015
    • Human Rights
    • Financial Transaction Tax
    • Tax Justice
    • Debt
    • Trade
    • Solidarity with Greece
    • TTIP
    • Climate Justice
  • Get Involved!
    • Join Us
  • Events
    • People rise up against Finance! STOP TTIP!
    • International CETA Speaking Tour
    • OXI March in Solidarity with Greece
    • Lux Leaks
  • Whats New!
    • Attac in the Media
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Attac Campaigns / An Attack on Whistleblowers and Freedom of the Press (LuxLeaks appeal trial 12 December 2016)

An Attack on Whistleblowers and Freedom of the Press (LuxLeaks appeal trial 12 December 2016)

December 8, 2016 by Attac Ireland Leave a Comment

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

screen-shot-2016-12-11-at-11-31-07-amATTAC IRELAND Press release: for release on Friday 9 December  

On 12 December, former PwC employees Antoine Deltour and Raphaël Halet, and journalist Edouard Perrin, will return to court after the verdicts of their initial trial earlier this year were appealed.

Antoine Deltour and Raphaël Halet exposed hundreds of secret Luxembourg tax rulings – also known as ‘sweetheart deals’ – which were brokered by PwC and allowed corporations to avoid taxes to the tune of billions of euros.

Edouard Perrin, who received the leaked documents from Deltour, first broke the story with two documentaries for state-owned France 2 TV channel in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, he worked with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on the Luxembourg Leaks investigation, which involved an international network of journalists, newspapers and other global news outlets across 26 countries, including The Guardian, Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung and The Irish Times.

In total, the revelations – which became known as LuxLeaks – brought to light the secret tax arrangements of 340 corporations, which enabled them to lower their tax payments, in some cases to less than 1%.

On 23 June 2016, a court in Luxembourg sentenced Antoine Deltour to a 12 month suspended prison sentence and a €1500 fine, and Raphaël Halet to a nine month suspended prison sentence and a €1000 fine. Both have appealed their convictions. The journalist Edouard Perrin was acquitted but the decision was appealed by the public prosecutor of Luxembourg. At the start of the initial trial, prosecutors had asked for 18-month prison sentences for both whistleblowers and a fine for Perrin.

The three men obviously acted for the common good and they have received widespread support. Last September, 108 MEPs expressed their support and solidarity with Antoine Deltour and Raphaël Halet in an open letter. [source link:1]

During the appeal trial itself, NGO campaigners, grassroots activists and members of the public from 20 countries across Europe, together with the three men’s families and close friends will be supporting them.

The activists will be outside the court, holding up signs calling for governments to ‘Protect Whistleblowers – Not Multinationals’, and signs that say ‘thank you’ to the three men who exposed the truth about the scale of multinational tax dodging.

Whistleblowers like Mr Halet and Mr Deltour should be protected – not prosecuted, and they should be thanked rather than punished. The information revealed by the LuxLeaks scandal should never have been secret in the first place.

The issue of press freedom.

For his reporting on the LuxLeaks story, Edouard Perrin received the Louise Weiss Award for European Journalism in 2012, but, in Luxembourg, he is treated as a criminal. Premières Lignes, the production company for which he works said: “These investigations in the public interest in Europe are perfectly in accordance with the role of journalists as watchdogs of democracy as acknowledged by the European Court of Human Rights.” Edouard Perrin’s reporting was clearly in the public interest. It is disturbing that a European member state should bring charges against him for just doing his legitimate work as a journalist. For further information, please contact Attac via Claudine Gaidoni on 085 1012212 or at gaidoniclaudine@gmail.com

[1] https://support-antoine.org/docs/news/2016-09-08-Letter-Deltour-Halet.pdf

Filed Under: Attac Campaigns, Attac Ireland in the Media, Tax Justice, Whistleblowers

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Upcoming Events

There are no upcoming events at this time.

Attac’s 7 Principles

  1. Take public finance away from financial markets
  2. Escape from the debt trap
  3. Give state finances a sustainable basis
  4. Disarm financial markets and put the banking sector under public control
  5. public and democratic financing of the economy
  6. Europe for the people, not for profits
  7. Real democracy now

Tags

#NoPegida anti-fascism anti-racism banks Barry Finnegan CETA climate justice commons Debt Debt Justice EU EU crisis Europe events Financial financial justice Financial Transaction Tax France Greek Debt human rights Ireland Irish water ISDS Justice Lux Leaks LuxLeaks migration money party politics Pegida privatisation Robin Hood Tax social justice Solidarity Greece Tax tax havens tax heavens Tax Justice TISA Trade trade agreements Trade Justice Transaction TTIP water
  • About
  • Campaigns
  • Get Involved!
  • Whats New!
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Climate Justice

Like Us On Facebook

Join our announcements mailing list!

Search this Site


  • 
  • 
  • 

Copyright © 2021 — Attac Ireland • All rights reserved.

Designed By Barefoot Responsive Web Design