A new interim session on February 15, in relation to a request for the disclosure of witness material from the defense side and for the purposes of preparing the new representative of the Prosecuting Authority, was set by the Permanent Criminal Court of Nicosia in the criminal case concerning both the report of the Al Jazeera journalistic network and events in the context of the exceptional naturalization of foreign investors and businessmen, based on the conclusion prepared by the Nicolatos Committee. At the same time, the Court set June 10 as the starting date for the hearing process of the witnesses, who according to the indictment amount to 32.
During today's trial, the answer of non-admission to the two charges faced by the third defendant in the case, Antonis Antoniou, was also given. Specifically, Christakis Tziovanis, one of the directors of the company of the co-accused in the same case and former Member of Parliament of AKEL, stated that he does not admit charges 4 and 5 regarding an agreement for collusion and influence respectively, which the new representative of the Legal Service for the Haris Karaolidou case.
It is recalled that during the previous session of the Criminal Court on December 29, the former President of the House of Representatives Dimitris Syllouris and Mr. Tziovanis declared before the court that they do not admit the five charges brought against them by the then representative of the Legal Service Elli Papagapiou, while due to due to his absence abroad, the third accused Antonis Antoniou received through his lawyer Andreas Pittatziis a new date for today, January 18, in order to answer the indictment himself, as he did.
Subsequently, Mr. Pittatziis confirmed before the Court that he submitted, as he had informed that he intends to do during the previous session in December, a written request to the Attorney General, with which he requests the release of witness material with the minutes of sworn statements of witnesses to the Investigative Committee on the facts of the case and reports on actions and omissions of the Unit for Combating Cover-Up Crimes, as well as the Nikolatos opinion on the basis of which the case was established.
He added that the request also includes the notification of a letter from the Ministry of the Interior to the Auditor General, in which the Ministry expressed, according to Mr. Pittatziis, an opinion about the non-commitment of the state regarding the procedure regarding the accusations.
For her part, Mrs. Karaolidou confirmed the receipt of the above letter on January 15 with a specific request, commenting on the corresponding position of her predecessor that at first sight there is a positive approach for the notification of some documents, while requesting additional time from the court for consideration of the request, given her recent designation as a public prosecutor in the case.
In continuation of the above and standing anew, Mr. Pittatziis requested the appointment of an interim session for the purpose of specifying the witness material and admissible witness events, adding that, as far as his client is concerned, the examination of the witnesses is expected to include at most 10-11 persons, which may contribute to the shortening of the procedure.
The other advocates, Giorgos Papaioannou and Chris Triantafyllidis, stated in their own positions that they are currently limited to the existing witness material, with Mr. Triantafyllidis noting that in order to facilitate the procedures regarding the admitted facts, he would be positive towards a possible preparation from part of the prosecution's informal document, stressing however that as a defense it intends to call all the witnesses during the hearing.
For his part, Mr. Papaioannou added that he has raised in his written letter an issue regarding the huge volume of electronic messages from various sources and to various recipients, regarding which there may be objections, adding that he considers it useful to speed up the process, limit the number of messages and draw up a specific list of documents.
Taking into account the above, the President of the Criminal Court set Monday, June 10 as the starting date for the hearing process of the witnesses, who, as he stated, amount to 32 according to the indictment, a process that will continue on a daily basis with a start time of 9.30 am. , except for each Wednesday, until its completion, extending if necessary also within the month of July.
In addition, regarding the request to disclose witness material, he set a new interim session for Thursday 15 February at 9.30 am, in the presence of the defendants except for Mr. Giovani who requested and received through his lawyer a special permission, so that the new representative of the Legal Service to have completed the study of the request and for the court to finalize the content of the material to be disclosed.
It is noted that the presumption of innocence applies to all defendants, until proven guilty by the court, beyond all reasonable doubt.