Lawyer Achilleas Emilianidis expressed his opinion on the footage from the unedited Al Jazeera video published by SIGMA in Mesimeri and Kati.
He initially stated that the video answers the question of why the charge against Mr. Pittatziis has been withdrawn. "It's good to remember why the presumption of innocence exists and why the basic principle exists that you don't judge someone before you hear them."
He added that the videos cannot answer the questions because they can simply be edited. "With technical intelligence you can create videos. We must not be frivolous when we position ourselves."
He emphasized how "in the decision of the General Prosecutor's Office to withdraw the charges, they started writing on social networks that it is a scandal, that he had threatened Anastasiades and that the prosecutors are corrupt".
He emphasized that no justice system in the world can deliver justice in all cases. "Justice is given by people. The judge does not mean that he acquires magical powers to understand who is telling the truth."
He pointed out that those who say that Cypriot justice is corrupt have no idea how it works. "There are serious problems and it does no good to try to exaggerate the problems."
Mr. Emilianidis emphasized that after the Al Jazeera video, "This is Cyprus" became the ultimate slogan and the ultimate corruption. "There is no state if we rely on the fact that five anonymous accounts on Twitter and Facebook will give the line that everything is corrupt. There is a crowd that has no idea and just writes that everyone is corrupt."
He also stated that the video shown by SIGMA was taken by the Cyprus Police or Prosecutor's Office from the respective authorities abroad based on a court request. "I think if what you're showing is the full video then there's an issue because that means the original Al Jazeera report was rigged."
He added that “we have an international news network, with journalists who seem to have consciously edited a video to serve ulterior interests, who seem not to have intended to bash Mr. Pittatzis. "They intended to harm the interests of the Republic of Cyprus".
He explained that he does not consider that the Republic of Cyprus can initiate a lawsuit. "I believe that it should be examined whether criminal offenses have been committed by Al Jazeera and its journalists and whether action should be taken."
Finally, he said that if the journalists edited a video in a way that showed a completely different content, apart from a violation of journalistic ethics, obviously this constitutes a very serious offense on the part of the station and it has to do with the seriousness of Al Jazeera".
Source: Sigmalive