Innocent till proven guilty
Society demands the proper punishment of anyone who has been found guilty of systematic tax evasion or bribery. State officials and prosecutors must do all they can to curb such wrongdoing. It is unacceptable, unethical and counterproductive that fellow citizens have to suffer having their name dragged through the dirt without any evidence of wrongdoing and before any investigation has been completed.
State officials are being paid to conduct thorough investigations under full discretion and not to circulate all sorts of lists and gossip. Our complex and ever-changing legislation and the bureaucratic way in which the country has operated for decades mean that any one of us could have done something to earn a place on a list.
But the aim must be to punish any public figures who have squandered money or systematically avoided paying their taxes, and to collect fines from any citizen who has been found guilty of breaking the law.
