A Greek court on Tuesday dismissed defamation charges filed against the German magazine Focus over a cover illustration depicting the Venus de Milo making an obscene gesture.

The article accompanying the cover, titled "Cheats in the euro family," was published in 2010 after the Greek government admitted to forging economic statistics to hide its massive deficit - which ultimately ignited the ongoing European debt crisis.

The doctored photograph showed the famed 2nd century BC sculpture draped in a Greek flag and raising her middle finger. The real sculpture, exhibited in Paris's Louvre Museum, has no arms.

A Greek state prosecutor charged the magazine's publisher and six staff members with defamation, arguing the image insulted the country. The matter also sparked outrage amongst Greek politicians and led to renewed calls for Germany to pay billions in war reparations for the 1941-1944 Nazi occupation of Greece.

The court in Athens ruled in Focus's favor, finding that the insult was directed at the actions of Greek politicians, not the country's general population.

Focus spokesman Jonas Grashey said the magazine was "glad that the Greek constitutional state has delivered evidence of its ability to function."

"Anything other than an acquittal would have been astonishing," he said. "This is a success for press freedom, though we would gladly have done without having to achieve it - because the charges were, in our eyes, a farce."

acb/sej (AP, dpa)