Another landmark case for whistleblowers: Luxembourg and tax evasion

https://euobserver.com/justice/137256

>Antoine Deltour, a former PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) employee who leaked documents showing how the company helped multinational companies to evade tax in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, was given a 6-month suspended sentence and fined €1,500.

>Raphael Halet, another PwC employee who had helped Deltour, was fined €1,000. After the first trial last year, Deltour received a 12-month suspended sentence and a fine of €1,500. Halet was fined €1,000 and given a nine-month suspended sentence.

>Halet was convicted of violating professional confidentiality, while Deltour was cleared of the charge thanks to his whistleblower status.

>The court had recognised Deltour and Halet's whistleblower status but had noted that it did not protect them under national or European law. "This disappointing judgment constitutes an additional argument for going ahead with recent European initiatives towards whistleblowers’ protection," Antoine Deltour said in a statement published by the defendants' support committee after the verdict.

>The group, Support Antoine, said that the court's decision presented "a disturbing contradiction". "It recognizes the whistleblower’s role and the public interest of the revelations but anyhow concludes on a condemnation," it said in the statement.

>"Once again, private financial interests seem to take priority over the collective interest and the rights for information." Activists have used the LuxLeaks case to showcase the need for more transparency and anti-tax evasion measures. Whistleblower protection has been a main focus.