ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A former Greek finance minister, who headed the country's effort to join the euro, is due to be jailed while awaiting trial on corruption charges.

Yannos Papantoniou and his wife Stavroula Kourakou are scheduled to be jailed Wednesday in Athens, after a judge ordered they be held in pre-trial detention on money laundering charges stemming from bribes allegedly paid to secure a 2003 navy contract.

The 69-year-old Papantoniou, a Cambridge-educated economist, served as minister of finance and national economy from 1996 to 2001 and then moved to the Ministry of Defense for three years under Socialist governments.

He denies the charges.

A spokesman for Greece's left-wing government, which faces general elections next year, described the decision as "proof of the corruption and degeneration of the old political system