A Greek appeals court found on Wednesday non-guilty Greek journalist Costas Vaxevanis who was charged with violation of privacy rights laws over the publication of a copy of a list with major Greek depositors in Switzerland a year ago

Vaxevanis, who appeared "vindicated" on Wednesday, was also acquitted during the first trial.

The case concerns the publication of the so-called "Lagarde list" of 2,000 Greeks with big deposits in an HSBC branch in Geneva in Vaxevanis' Hot Doc magazine.

The list was handed to Greek authorities by Christine Lagarde, the current head of International Monetary Fund, in 2010, when she served as French finance Minister, as part of efforts to counter tax evasion in Greece.

Vaxevanis strongly criticized Greek governments ever since of failing to check whether there were any tax dodgers among the depositors.

He blasted Greek authorities of launching an effort to silence journalists in order to cover up corruption.

Greek officials argued that the data could not be used because they were stolen and leaked by a former HSBC employee.

Other European countries based on similar lists raised a significant amount of tax revenues from depositors.

For the same case former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou was stripped by the parliamentary immunity this year and is under probe for tampering with the list, since the names of three of his relatives were erased during his tenure in office. Endi

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