Greece: Imposed debt "illegal, illegitimate & odious" - Hellenic Parliament President

The debt "imposed on Greece" has been deemed "illegal, illegitimate, odious, offensive and unsustainable," President of the Hellenic Parliament Zoi Konstantopoulou, announced in Athens, Thursday. While the Greece Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is trying to reach an agreement with Greece's three lenders - the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Union and the European Central Bank (ECB), to prevent the country from defaulting, the Greek debt committee has reached the conclusion that the loan should in fact not be repaid. The Truth Committee on Public Debt stated that the debt arrangements made by the troika would result in an infringement of human rights and therefore debt repayments should not be made. Professor Georgios Kasimatis, who specialises in constitutional law, went as far as saying that "Such a sweeping violation of principles through lending in Greece is horrific and unprecedented in modern history." He believes that fighting the legality of the loans is Greece's "strongest weapon" in fighting their lenders. The Greek government and its three lenders, the (IMF), EU and ECB are currently in deadlock over the last installation of €7.2 billion ($8.1bn) in rescue funds. According to the agreement made with the Eurogroup Greece still owes 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) to the IMF, due to be re-paid at the end of June.