LuxLeaks whistleblower’s conviction overturned

Luxembourg, Jan. 11: A Luxembourg court on Thursday overturned — on human rights grounds — the verdict against a "LuxLeaks" whistleblower who was convicted of leaking thousands of documents that revealed tax breaks for multinational firms.

Luxembourg's highest court rejected the conviction against former PricewaterhouseCoopers employee Antoine Deltour, who in March had received a reduced six- month suspended jail sentence with a 1,500- euro fine.

The LuxLeaks scandal erupted in 2014 and sparked a major global push against generous deals handed to multinationals, which grew even stronger with new revelations such as the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers Leaks.

"Today is a victory," Deltour said as he left the courtroom.

The court "has clearly indicated towards a favourable outcome here in Luxembourg,” he added. The sentence against Deltour's colleague Raphael Halet, who received a 1,000- euro fine after an appeal, was however upheld as the court said that he did not fit the whistleblower definition.

The blockbuster leak revealed the huge tax breaks that tiny EU

nation Luxembourg offered international firms including Apple, IKEA and Pepsi, at a time when Jean- Claude Juncker, now head of the European Commission, was prime minister.

The tiny EU country's highest appeal court said Deltour was wrongly accused as he should have been fully recognised as a whistleblower as defined by the European Court of Human Rights.

An appeal court will now hold a fresh trial with new judges tasked to decide a very limited part of Deltour's case, Luxembourg's highest court said in a statement.

"This decision is a significant step in the protection of whistleblowers in Europe," Deltour's lawyer William Bourdon said.