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Hello and welcome to More or Less on the BBC World Service. I'm Ruth Alexander.

Now, we used to stories about statistics being misused on More or Less.

But in Greece, they've taken it to a whole new level.

They're putting a man on trial for his statistical pronouncements

with a maximum punishment of five years in prison.

Westerly Stevenson's been following the story.

Yeah, hi, Ruth. This story is extraordinary.

It's the story of Andrea Shorziu, who was given the task of running

the Greek Statistics Agency else stat back in 2010.

And he's been accused of cooking the books, hasn't he?

Yes, and in doing so, he's accused of inflating the Greek deficit

to look higher than it really was.

Now, this is something he strongly denies, but he faces criminal charges

for a breach of faith, something that's normally used against those

who embezzle or misuse public funds.

And if found guilty, Mr Shorziu, as you say, could face at least five years in jail.

So, he comes in as the new head of the Statistics Agency,

recalculates the deficit, and ends up facing criminal charges.

Wow, why did he decide to recalculate those figures in the first place then?

...