British historian Sheila Lecoeur is on trial for defamation

In [October] 2016, British historian Sheila Lecoeur, lecturer in Italian at the Imperial College, London, and her Greek publisher Alexandria Publications were sued for defamation in Athens by the family of the late Vayias Vaitsis.

In the original English edition and the 2013 Greek translation of her book Mussolini’s Greek Island: Fascism and the Italian Occupation of Syros in World War II (2009), Lecoeur had mentioned that in 1944 Vaitsis had accepted the post of acting prefect of Syros, capital of the Cyclades archipelago, under the quisling government of Prime Minister Ioannis Rallis (1878−1946) and the German occupation force (October 1943−November 1944). She also wrote that “a continuing controversy surround[ed] his name.” (pages 182−183 of the 2009 edition). 

The family demanded 300,000 euros in damages as they claimed that Vaitsis’s reputation was tarnished and many inhabitants of the island now considered him to be a traitor and Nazi collaborator. The trial was planned for 27 October 2016.

[Sources: “Petition for Sheila Lecoeur: Greek version” (19 October 2016); “Petition for Sheila Lecoeur: English version” (24 October 2016).]