It was postponed before the start of the criminal trial scheduled for today against the four high-ranking executives of the former Laiki Bank by the Permanent Criminal Court of Nicosia, with the next trial set for April 3, 2017.
The District Court of Nicosia referred the case to a direct trial on 28/11/2016 before the Criminal Court after a delay due to the refusal of the Greek defendants in the case of Efthymios Bouloutas and Markos Foros to appear in person, as they should, in court.
The two defendants referred, among other things, to the decision of the International Court of Arbitration, which called on the Cypriot authorities to suspend the execution of the arrest warrants issued against them. However, the Court in Paris subsequently reviewed its decision, at the request of the Advocate General, essentially obliging the two defendants to appear in person before the court for the purpose of referring them to the Criminal Court.
In addition to Bouloutas and Foros, former CEO and non-executive member of the bank's Board of Directors respectively, the defendants in the same case are also Neoklis Lysandrou and Panagiotis Kounnis, Non-Executive Vice President and Deputy CEO of Lai. Lysandrou and Kounnis appeared in court regularly from the beginning together with their lawyers.
At today's hearing, Boulouta and Forou's defense attorneys stated that their clients were not prepared to respond to the charges against them and asked for time to prepare for a preliminary appeal and specific responses, leaving open the possibility of testimony. As mentioned, the objections will concern, among others, the adjudicated, the statute of limitations of the offenses and the jurisdiction of the Cypriot court.
The lawyers of the two defendants also asked for the case to be set after the end of March in order to complete the ongoing process before the International Court of Arbitration in Paris, even referring to the instructions of that Court which, as they claimed, provide for the non-opening of the trial. of the present case before the conclusion of the arbitration proceedings before him.
The lawyers of the other two defendants agreed with the request to be given time, while concern was also expressed about the delay observed in the case due to the fault of their co-accused from Greece.
Without any objection from the Prosecution Authority, the Criminal Court approved the request of the defense attorneys and adjourned the case for April 3, 2017 at 9 am.
Bouloutas and Tax were released on the condition of a bank guarantee of € 200,000 each and a personal guarantee of € 200,000 each. Lysandrou and Kounnis were released on the condition of depositing a personal guarantee of € 400,000 each together with two worthy guarantors.
The defendants face a total of four counts of conspiracy to commit embezzlement, market manipulation, false or misleading information and false accounts.
It should be noted that the Supreme Court has decided that Bouloutas and Foros be extradited to Cyprus, at the request of the Cypriot authorities, to be tried only on charges related to the offenses of market manipulation and false or misleading information, while the others two co-accused face all four charges.
Source: philenews / KYPE