The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment on the petition filed by the legal team of Nicos Clerides seeking a writ of certiorari to annul the search warrant executed at his home and law office. Clerides's lawyer Christos Clerides said following the hearing that "the first stage of the proceedings has been completed" and that a ruling is now awaited.
The hearing took place before Supreme Court judge Elena Efraim, to whom the case was assigned after the petition was filed electronically through the iJustice system.
The warrant at the centre of the dispute was executed on Holy Saturday by police investigating the Sandy case, the sprawling inquiry into allegations made by journalist Makarios Drousiotis implicating senior judicial and legal figures. Officers seized phones, laptops, USB devices and documents from Clerides's premises. Clerides's legal team, which includes former Cyprus Bar Association president Christos Clerides, has described the search as disproportionate and unnecessary, arguing that Nicos Clerides was a witness who had already cooperated with investigators voluntarily and that less intrusive means of obtaining any additional evidence were available. The team also alleges the timing of the warrant, issued at 1am on Holy Saturday, was deliberate, designed to limit the ability to challenge it through the courts during the Easter holiday period.
Should the Supreme Court uphold the petition and annul the warrant, all material obtained during the search would be deemed inadmissible as evidence and treated as having been obtained through an unlawful procedure.
The Sandy case inquiry is continuing on multiple parallel tracks, with Europol's forensic laboratory examining key evidence and an FBI team expected to arrive in Cyprus within the coming days to assist with the analysis of testimonies and evidentiary material.