The lawsuit is also against the former defense ministers, Costa Papakosta, and Foreign, Markos Kyprianou.
Lawsuit against the Republic of Cyprus, by the President Dimitris Christofias both former Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs, Costa Papakosta and Marko Kyprianou, in relation to both the provocation of the death of Captain Andreas Ioannidis and the violations by the Republic, of the obligations deriving from international conventions and the Constitution, the family of the Commander of the Naval Base, registered yesterday in the Limassol District Court. who died tragically during the deadly explosion of 11 July;
According to the family lawyers, Dimitris Araouzos and Anastasios Antoniou"The lawsuit is the appropriate means to make a binding diagnosis of the obligations of each of the defendants, even if at the same time no treatment sought by the Court can ever fully restore the loss of husband and father Andreas Ioannidis." With the lawsuit, they add, the master's family will seek a judicial and binding diagnosis of everyone's obligations, "because we believe that the administration of justice in this case is the only way to alleviate at least the untold pain of ".
For the President of the Republic:
For the President of the Republic, who is being sued personally, the lawyers state, among other things, that "as the ultimate manager that he was, he should, in this capacity and having the opportunity to be informed of the risks involved, give at all times and in a decisive and specific manner, those instructions which under the circumstances were necessary the life of Captain Ioannidis, or any other person, is in any danger", And they add.
«It does not matter whether or not the President of the Republic and his two Ministers correctly assessed the risk of causing the death of the captain and the other 12 victims and the injury of the others, but the fact that this danger, objectively speaking, was obvious and it should have been obvious to the President and the two former Ministers because of the position they held and the extent of the information they had and could have from their subordinates. We do not consider that any of the three officials were misled into the risks, or were unable to assess them.».
"End of demagogy":
Meanwhile, at a press conference, the master's wife Maria Ioannidi, speaking on behalf of the families of the victims, stressed that "freedom of expression cannot, nor is it legitimate, extend to the insult and accusation of the dead, who cannot defend themselves». Any attempt, he said, to present the conclusion of the Polybius Research Committee that appointed the Minister upon the proposal of the President of the Republic, as unscientific and documented, finds us opposed. We expect, stressed the Mr. Ioannidis, who are "the end of unacceptable conclusions, petty demagogy, and the wider attempt to disorient public opinion».
Delayed justice, ceases to be justice…
Ο MICHALIS Christoforou, father of twin sailors, who died in the blast, stressed that "belated justice ceases to be justice", Since, as he pointed out, the delay in registering criminal prosecutions leads to the acquittal of defendants. He stressed that the families of the victims will not allow it, because they consider it disrespectful to the dead and torture to those who lost their people unjustly.
The state, he said Mr. Christoforou, and its coordinated bodies, not only did not take the necessary measures to bring all those responsible to justice, but also proceeded to remove the availability of the military involved ". And he concluded: "Silently, unacceptably and provocatively, the GEEF leadership conducted a disciplinary inquiry, which was completed without any disciplinary misconduct, with the result that the officers involved returned to their posts and, in fact, were assigned revised duties as if nothing had happened.». Source: today's