  We propose that leptonic CP violation arises from a breaking of the mu-tau
exchange symmetry in the neutrino mass matrix which in turn is indicated by the
near maximal atmospheric neutrino mixing and the near zero \theta_{13}. We find
that for the case of a normal hierarchy, present data already restricts the way
CP violation may appear in the neutrino mass matrix and there is an interesting
correlation between the mixing angle \theta_{13}, the solar mixing angle
\theta_{12} and the Dirac CP phase. In the inverted hierarchy only \theta_{13}
and the Dirac phase are linked. We also discuss the impact of this kind of CP
violation on the deviation of the atmospheric mixing from its maximal value.
Moreover, if corrections to mu-tau symmetry arise from the charged lepton
sector, where mu-tau symmetry is known to be broken anyway, we find interesting
connections between the CP-even and -odd terms as well. Our predictions are
testable in the proposed long baseline neutrino experiments.
