By a majority decision (2–1), the Nicosia Criminal Court acquitted former House President Dimitris Syllouris and former AKEL MP Christakis Giovanni on Tuesday in the citizenship‑for‑investment case that emerged following the publication of the Al Jazeera video.
The ruling clarifies that the video which triggered the investigation was not submitted as evidence in the case and, therefore, its content was not taken into account for the purposes of adjudicating the matter.
In its ruling, the Court levelled criticism at the Prosecution.
Specifically, in the majority’s lengthy decision (170 pages), it is stated, among other things, that essential witnesses were missing without any explanation from the Prosecution, and that there were omissions on the part of the Prosecution.
For each of the three charges, the Court set out in detail the reasoning and the grounds on which it concluded they had not been proven.
With regard to the electronic messages exchanged between Andreas Pittadjis and an investor, the judgment notes that “the defendants are not mentioned and none of the persons in the correspondence testified. Pittadjis’s statements cannot serve as evidence for others; independent testimony should have been identified.”
The court concluded that the charges faced by the two former officials were not proven, and as such, both defendants were acquitted.
The majority decision was announced on Tuesday shortly after 10am in a packed courtroom, in the presence of numerous relatives, associates and friends of the two defendants.
After Judge Nikola Georgiadis finished reading the majority decision, the relatives and friends of the two defendants broke into prolonged applause.
The two former officials had faced charges relating to the offences of conspiracy to defraud the Republic and improperly influencing a public official in violation of the law ratifying the Council of Europe Convention on the Criminal Law of Corruption.
The reading of the decision lasted more than an hour and a half.
More later...