ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A high court in Greece has convicted the country's former statistics chief to two years in prison for breach of duty, in a highly politically charged case closely watched by international bailout lenders.

The court Tuesday suspended the sentence for the 57-year-old Andreas Georgiou after finding him guilty of breaching regulations of the National Statistical Authority by failing to inform its governing board about the release of budget deficit data in 2010.

Georgiou, a former executive at the International Monetary Fund, headed the Greek agency between 2010 and 2015 after it became independently run — a condition for Greece to receive international bailout money after it lost market access.