On Tuesday, the new judge who took over the case expressed her intention for a speedy procedure in the death investigation, for Thanasis Nikolaou, after the approval of the family's request for the exception of the previous judge. Today's proceedings were spent planning the next steps, with the court setting a new date, on November 10 (12:00), where it will decide whether the medical examiner Panikos Stavrianos will participate as an interested party.
The court asked the Legal Service and the family's lawyer for their views on whether the process should start over or whether the witness material and findings should be submitted as evidence, to start the process from where it was. the previous death inquest was stopped.
In addition, the judge expressed her intention for the inquest to be completed quickly, as she said, through a process of two or three presentations per week.
The two sides agreed that the process should continue from where it had left off, that is, on the basis of the new data created after the exhumation of the bones of Thanasis Nikolaos – in 2020 – and which led to the conclusion that his death, on September 29, 2005, it was due to a criminal act and not to suicide, as the medical examiner Panikos Stavrianos had ruled at the time.
From the point of view of the Legal Service, it was reported that this is a "peculiar case", with a huge amount of witness material, and it asked the court to clarify whether the medical examiner Panikos Stavrianos, in case he is called as a witness, could subsequently participate in the process with his legal counsel, as an interested party.
The family's lawyer said that he does not consider that the new evidence requires the presence of Mr. Stavrianou as a witness, while he added that the family intends to present the two new expert testimonies that have emerged in recent years.
The next steps for the death investigation in the Thanasis Nikolaou case will be decided on November 10, the date on which the court will also announce its decision on the participation or not of the coroner Panikos Stavrianou in the process.
Source: KYPE