was founded in 2024 by a team member of Blueprint for Free Speech Greece, Aristeidi (Ari) Danikas, an ex-South African whistleblower, who, in 2008, was forced to return to Greece in fear of his life after exposing extrajudicial killings, human rights violations, and Apartheid interrogation techniques, by specialized police units in South Africa against colored people.
Liberty of Speech is a non-profit charity that works internationally to promote both the Declaration on Race and Racial Prejudice and the Right to Freedom of Expression. Our work defends Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on Human Rights and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which asserts the right to freedom of opinion and expression for all people. Liberty of speech is affiliated with international non-profit organizations such as BluePrint For Free Speech and Whistleblowers of America
GLOBAL CORRUPTION AND PUBLIC INTEGRITY: THE HUMAN FACTOR. We are thrilled to announce our first-ever international conference, held in collaboration with Whistleblowers of America. Set against the backdrop of historic Athens, the birthplace of Democracy, this event promises two days of insightful discussions.
Boeing whistleblower John Barnett dead in US.
In recent years, a new phenomenon has emerged. We call it the ‘whistleblower suicide’ disease.
This story was originally published by Blueprint for Free Speech. An edited version is republished here with permission. South African health agency whistleblower Babita Deokaran was a key witness in a long-running investigation into alleged corruption in the procurement of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) for medics in the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 23 August 23, 2021, she was gunned down outside her home in what the authorities believe was a targeted killing. Babita Deokaran joined the health department in Gauteng province as a state accountant 15 years ago. She rose through the ranks to the position of chief director of financial accounting. In this post she controlled the paper trail of payments made to government service providers, and was privy to evidence of irregularities. According to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), an agency in South Africa that undertakes forensic probes into corruption allegations at state
Yasmine Motarjemi won her appeal against Nestlé in her lengthy whistleblowing case in Switzerland on 7 January 2020, it was announced. In a statement she responded: “My judicial battle continues, as I still have to fight on many fronts, including for my financial survival. However, I hope that this recent breakthrough will mark a turning point in my long struggle for ethical behavior, justice and respect for human rights.”
This story was originally published by Blueprint for Free Speech. An edited version is republished here with permission. Goodson’s brave public disclosure exposed the corrupt activities of the Gupta family, the starting point for South Africa’s investigation into whole-of-state corruption South Africa’s detailed investigation into high level public corruption started in 2016, when the independent Public Protector’s office published an influential report titled State of Capture and strongly recommended that a full scale inquiry follow. At the start of 2016 Bianca Goodson had been headhunted to head the management division of a South African financial advisory firm, Trillian Capital. By the time Goodson left her job, just three months later, she was well aware that her employer was right in the centre of the original state capture allegations. She also realised that what she knew about Trillian’s relations with the influential Gupta brothers and state owned enterprises in South Africa
Board of Advisers
Assistant Professor of Law chez Centre for Financial and Corporate Integrity, Coventry University @CFCI / Co-Founder & Director of Research @EWI/ Board Member TI Greece
Dimitrios is an Assistant Professor of Law at Coventry University. He has studied English Language and Literature and then Law. He holds a Master of Arts in International Studies and an LLM in European Economic and Financial Criminal Law. He completed his PhD at the University of Luxembourg on the legal protection of whistle-blowers in the EU banking and financial sector. He worked at the Court of Justice of the European Union prior to joining Coventry University.
Board of Advisers
John Chris Kiriakou (born August 9, 1964) is an American author, journalist and former intelligence officer.
He was formerly an analyst and case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, counterterrorism, and a consultant for ABC News. He was the first U.S. government official to confirm in December 2007 that waterboarding was used to interrogate al-Qaeda prisoners, which he described as torture.
In 2012, Kiriakou became the first CIA officer to be convicted of passing classified information to a reporter. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
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Dr Stelios Andreadakis is a Reader in Corporate and Financial Law and Director of Postgraduate Programmes. Prior to joining Brunel, he was a Lecturer and LLM Director at the University of Leicester and a Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. He holds a PhD and an LLM in International Commercial Law from the University of Leicester and an undergraduate Law degree from the Law School of the University of Athens, Greece.
Dr Andreadakis’ research interests are in the areas of Corporate Law and EU Law. He is particularly interested in corporate governance, exploring aspects of the regulation of companies, corporate theories, the operation of financial markets, and the role of scandals in the introduction of new legislation. His current work focuses on the role of whistle-blowers in modern corporate governance and he is conducting empirical research in the US, Japan, and Europe. A monograph will be published by Edward Elgar with the findings of the research project and his recommendations as to the role of corporate culture in the strengthening of whistleblower protection worldwide.
Dr Andreadakis has published a very influential monograph, co-authored with Prof Sonia Morano-Foadi, on the process of European integration, the role of the judiciary and policy-makers as well as the future of human rights protection in the EU. In recognition of his work in this area, Dr. Andreadakis was invited to make a contribution as an expert to a Public Hearing organised by the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament in April 2016 in Brussels.
Board of Advisers
Cynthia Stimpel is a former Group Treasurer at South African Airways. She is the cofounder of the Citizens of Conscience Foundation and a member of the Amnesty International South Africa board of directors. She holds an MBA from the Milpark Business School, is a qualified yoga instructor, and is a proud grandmother of two.
When Cynthia Stimpel was appointed Group Treasurer of South African Airways, she thought she had found her dream job and that she would be at SAA for years. While on a walking pilgrimage in France in 2016, she received word from a colleague that a dirty deal between SAA and BNP Capital had been signed off – a deal against which Cynthia had given strict orders.
Despite knowing that she might jeopardize her job and her family’s finances, Stimpel did not hesitate. She tipped off the Treasury, eventually stopping Dudu Myeni and saving the taxpayer R256 million. Stimpel paid the price for speaking up: she lost her job, income, and reputation. Yet the battle against Myeni and her fellow state capturers at SAA was far from over. She knew she would still have to face Myeni in court and testify against her at the Zondo Commission. Hijackers on Board is a very personal state capture story that shows how the bravery of one individual can change the course of history.
CAMS CFE CGSS CIPPE CIPM
Legal Board of Advisers
Dr Damaskou Anna has worked with national and EU supervisors of the banking and financial sectors, as well as with banking institutions in Greece and abroad. She was the Chair of the Board of Transparency International Greece from October 2017 to July 2021, after having served as a researcher for the organization for a number of years. Dr Damaskou has carried out post-doctoral research at the University of Luxembourg in the fields of European financial criminal law and European Banking Law. She holds a PhD from Queen Mary University of London in the field of European financial criminal law, as well as an LLM from the London School of Economics & Political Science specializing in (criminal) banking and financial law. She has published extensively in the areas of good governance and anti-corruption. She is certified as CAMS, CFE, CGSS, CIPP/E, CIPM. She speaks English, French, German and Serbian.
Board of Advisers
Yasmine Motarjemi holds an MSc in Food Science and Technology from the University of Languedoc, Montpellier, France (1978) and a Doctoral degree in Food Engineering from the University of Lund, Sweden (1988). In 2003, she followed training at the IMD business school in Switzerland and later in 2014 a course on Human Rights at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.
After her academic career, in 1990 she joined the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva as Senior Scientist. In WHO, she was responsible for the surveillance and prevention of foodborne illnesses, education of food handlers, the development of the food safety assurance system (e.g. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system), and for assistance to the WHO Member States in strengthening their national food control. In the 1990s, she participated in developing the risk analysis process. She has served in the Secretariat of various sessions of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and its Committees.
From 2000 to 2011, she held the position of Assistant Vice President at Nestlé and worked as the Corporate Food Safety Manager. In this capacity, she has, among others, developed the Nestlé Food Safety Management system and managed various emerging food safety issues and crises. She was active in several industry organizations, among others FooddrinkEuorpe where she advised on the management of international food safety crises.
She is the author, co-author, or editor of numerous peer-reviewed articles, books, training manuals, and other publications, including a book on food safety for children. In 2014, she published the Encyclopedia on Food Safety and the book Food Safety Management: A Practical Guide for the Food Industry (Elsevier) which in 2015 received a PROSE award in the USA.
In 2006, she started to blow the whistle in Neslté on ongoing mismanagement in food safety. After 4 years of reporting and harassment, she was fired, officially for her opinion on food safety. https://global-geneva.com/nestle-whistleblower-letter-to-company-ceo-ulf-mark-schneider/
She is presently an advocate of Human Rights and whistleblowing (see Whistleblowing: food safety and fraud, ( http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/junejuly-2014/whistleblowing-food-safety-and-fraud/ )
Board of Advisers
Jane Turner was a highly decorated, 25-year veteran Special Agent with the FBI. She served in the most difficult investigatory positions and was the first women named as the head of an FBI resident agency. She led the FBI’s highly successful programs combating crimes against women and child sex crime victims on North Dakota Indian Reservations. In retaliation for exposing FBI failures within its child crime program, Turner was removed from senior resident agent position.
Turner successfully fought her removal and won a historic victory for all FBI whistleblowers before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. She challenged her retaliation in federal court, and won a unanimous jury verdict in her favor, obtaining the largest compensatory damage award permitted under the law for federal employees. Jane also exposed criminal theft of property at the 9/11 crime scene by a handful of FBI agents. She was harshly retaliated against for reporting these violations to the Department of Justice, Inspector General. After a ten-year battle, she prevailed, becoming only one of a small handful of FBI agents to win her cases under the FBI Whistleblower Protection Act.
Legal Board of Advisers
International Human Rights
Joe is the legal advisor to Whistleblowers of America (WoA), providing legal advice on various topics concerning how laws affect the organization. Outside of WoA, he also provides legal advice and guidance to service members denied veterans disability benefits. Prior to his current position, Joe was employed by Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) as the senior legal advisor to the Department of Defense (DoD) Suicide Prevention Office. Before that assignment, he served as a legal specialist for the United States Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (DUSD) for Wounded Warrior Care and Transition Policy. Joe has also been the legal advisor to the DUSD for Wounded Warrior Care, where he represented DoD at the National Association of Drug Professionals (NADP). Working with NADP, Joe helped to develop the Veterans Treatment Courts currently utilized by most states. These courts provide therapeutic sentencing in lieu of criminal sanctions for veterans diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Joe also worked for the DoD Transition Assistance Program, attempting to get state licensing for service members with skills acquired in the military.
Prior to working for BAH, Joe worked for 28 years for the U. S. Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG), as the senior adjudicator for all Naval Active Duty and Reserve disability cases, retiring in 2009. In 2007, Joe cofounded SEGS4VETS, a non-profit organization that awards Segways to all veterans who have lost their legs in combat and develops industrial equipment for disabled veterans. During this time, Joe also served as the Special Assistant for the Deputy Secretary of the Navy for Reserve Affairs, where he created an expedited disability system for severely injured service members. Under the expedited system, one interagency disability panel was authorized to award DoD, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Social Security Administration benefits to severely injured service members. The panel reduced the waiting time for disabled service members to receive United States Federal Government benefits from a period of six months to less than 30 days – an 85% decrease. Joe was also the legal advisor to the DoD Committee responsible for developing the first online Constitution Day program course that all DoD employees were required to take and pass to remain employed.
Joe’s education credentials include a Juris Doctorate degree from Delaware Law School of Widener University, a Master of Business Administration degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a Master of International Public Policy degree from Johns Hopkins University, post-doctorate degree (LLM) in International and Comparative Law from Georgetown University Law School, Master of Science in National Security Strategy degree from the National War College (NWC) of the United States, and Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from West Chester University (Pennsylvania). While attending the NWC, Joe served on the team that traveled to Serbia and Montenegro to investigate corruption in the management of Kosovo refugee camps. He is also a graduate of the DoD Leadership and Management Program for senior employees.
Joe is a member of the bars of the United States Supreme Court, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Virginia; and is an accredited attorney of the VA.
LCSW-C, ACSW, BCETS, SHRM-CP, WPA
Board of Advisers
Versatile, experienced senior leader and manager who has served in many roles across Government from clinical care to developing policy and programs for Congress, the Executive Branch and with other nations. Created strategic plans, supervised teams, executed millions of dollars, and evaluated performance impacting the armed forces, veterans, and their families. Proven ability to lead and mentor people from entry to executive level, while consistently achieving superior results with international recognition. Routinely selected for high-impact and innovative assignments. Secret Security Clearance.
Legal Board of Advisers
Education
He is a graduate of the Law Department of the National and Kapodistrian
University of Athens with a grade of “good” (1995).
Graduate of the Civil- Criminal Justice Department of the National School of
Judges (6th Series- 2000).
Holder of a master’s degree in Criminal Sciences of the Department of Law of
the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Substantive and
Procedural Criminal Law with “summa cum laude” (2014).
Speaks English (excellent level) and French.
Professional Employment
Appointed lawyer at the Court of First Instance of Athens (1997).
Appointed Trainee Judge at the Court of First Instance of Livadia in October 2001, after graduating from the Department of Civil- Criminal Justice of the National School of Judges, he was promoted to First Instance Court Judge in 2002, to President of First Instance Court in 2013 and to Appellant in 2020, serving until today.
He has served in the Courts of First Instance of Livadia (2001-2002), Fokida (2002-2006) and Athens (2006 to 2020), as well as in the Courts of Appeal of Patras (16-9-2020 to 16-9-2021) and Athens (from 16-9 -2021 to date). He has served in the Departments of Criminal Law, Torts, Property Law, Automobiles, Leasing, while he has performed investigative duties at the Courts of First Instance of Fokida (2002-2006) and Athens (6th Investigating Judge 2007-2011).
From December 2014 to September 2018 he served as a Special Investigating Judge for International Judicial Assistance at the Court of First Instance of Athens (responsible for mutual international cooperation in criminal cases – many of them of major importance such as the terrorist attacks in France and Belgium).
From September 2018 to September 2020, he served as President of the Commercial Department of the Court of First Instance of Athens. By decree of the Supreme Judicial Counsel, he was seconded from the month of October 2021 until today, to the Ministry of Justice as an Advisor in the Special LegalService (former Legislative Initiative Office) of the Ministry and participates in numerous law- making committees.
Parallel professional-scientific activities
Elected regular member of the Three- Member Board of Directors of the Court of First Instance of Athens (2012-2014). During the years 2010-2012 he was elected as an alternate member of the Three-member Board of Directors of the Court of First Instance of Athens.
Elected Deputy Head of the Court of First Instance of Athens (October 2019- September 2020).
Taught at the National School of Judges in the year 2021 (27th Series) the course “Justice Systems in Greece, EU member states and the Anglo-Saxon states”.
Taught at the National School of Judges in the year 2023 (29th Series) the course “Drafting of indictments, criminal court decisions and decrees”.
Since 2007 he has been appointed as contact point in Greece for the European Justice Network in Civil and Commercial Matters (EJN) and since then he has participated in the scheduled meetings of the Network in Brussels and elsewhere.
During the Greek Presidency of the Council of the European Union (first half of 2014) he chaired the meetings of the working group for the amendment of Regulation 861/2007 on Small Claims that took place in Brussels.
Participated in the seminars organized by the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) in Stockholm (2015) and Thessaloniki (2016) with the subject “International Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters in Practice: EAW and MLA simulations”.
From September 2016 until today, he participated as contact point of the National School of Judges in the European Judicial Training Network (EJTN) in the scheduled meetings of the network in Portugal, France, Croatia and Bulgaria.
Participated in numerous coordination meetings at the headquarters of Eurojust (The Hague) regarding issues of international mutual judicial cooperation in criminal cases (2007-2011, 2015-2018).
Lecturer at the seminar organized by the National School of Judges in Komotini, Greece (June 24-26, 2009) on the topic “The protection of third parties in insolvency cases according to (Greek) Act 3714/2008”.
During the years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, he participated in the drafting of the World Bank’s Doing Business guides, providing information regarding the procedural system of Greece and the amendments to the Civil Code.• In January 2014, he participated to the Special Working Group of the Ministry of Justice on electronic filing of documents and proposals (E-Justice), representing the Court of First Instance of Athens.
Speaker at the Conference on European Judicial Cooperation EUROJUST – European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which took place in Athens, on 10-5-2018. His speech was published in the series POINIKA No. 96, ed. A.Sakkoulas, 2019.
Speaker at the online seminar organized by the National School of Judges (March 11-12, 2021) on “European and International Criminal Cooperation – The Role of the Investigating Judge when processing cases involving requests for international judicial assistance”.
Co-Founder
Dr Suelette Dreyfus is the co-founder of Liberty of Speech in Greece, and the Executive Director of Blueprint for Free Speech. Suelette’s career has spanned academia, journalism, and advocacy. She is a specialist in cybersecurity technologies and integrity systems that work as corrective mechanisms in society. She is also a lecturer in the Department of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne, as well as the principal researcher on the impact of digital technologies on whistleblowing as a form of freedom of expression. Her research includes information systems, digital security, privacy, and the impact of technology on whistleblowing, health informatics, and e-education.
Suelette founded Blueprint in 2014 with a view to improving the standards of laws and practices around the globe that protect freedom of expression. Her specific work at Blueprint is to raise the standards of protection for whistleblowers. She also works on projects to protect the media’s ability to publish freely, particularly via the internet, and on the creation of new technology to achieve these goals.
Co-Founder / CEO
Aristeidis (Aris) Danikas is the founder and CEO of the Non-For-Profits organization, Liberty of Speech, previously known as Blueprint for Freespeech Greece. Aristeidis education was in the field of electronics and hardware maintenance. Born in Greece, he immigrated to South Africa as a teenager in 1988, where he started a successful electronics business after he completed his education in electronic hardware maintenance. Aristeidis demonstrated an early talent in computer hardware, he further developed various digital investigative techniques and as a result, the South African authorities invited him to become a reservist police investigator, assisting various specialized units in combating crime for nearly ten years.
Regrettably, while in service as a reservist crime scene investigator, Ari witnessed and documented police brutality, human rights violations, racial profiled torture, and extra-judicial killings in South Africa. After he attempted to make internal and external public disclosures regarding corruption and Apartheid methods of interrogations by the South African police services, he suffered serious retaliation that posed a risk to his life. As a result, he was forced into exile with his wife in 2008 and returned to Greece leaving behind him South Africa.
In Greece, he rebuilds his life, created an industrial solar park, and in 2012 he was invited to testify as a witness by the South African authorities, from Greece in order to assist further with a criminal case against certain members of a police unit he had previously tried to expose.
In 2016 Ari received the prestigious special recognition award, Blueprint For Freespeech for his whistleblowing efforts.
Since 2017 Ari has been assisting pro-bono, international NGOs, in the field of whistleblowing and human rights advocacy.
In 2023 Ari traveled to Puerto Rico as a panel speaker for the Law & Society Organization, as well as Washington DC, where he addressed congressional staffers with his proposal of an international treaty for whistleblowers, and he was presented with the international Giraffe award for his Human Rights Advocacy, by the NGO Whistleblowers of America.
