Bribery charges dropped in helmets case

LIMASSOL businessman Evros Maliotis walked free from court yesterday after bribery charges against him were dropped due to lack of evidence.

Maliotis had been accused of attempting to bribe a senior National Guard officer to pass defective helmets he was due to supply to the army in 1994.

Yesterday Limassol court dropped the charges after the defence successfully argued that the testimony of a prosecution witness was insufficient to convict Maliotis.

The witness, Demetris Kaias, a senior officer in charge of supplies at the time, had told the court Maliotis had tried to get him to agree to pass the helmets, even though they had failed ballistic tests.

Kaias said that samples from 1,880 helmets which were part of a larger consignment had been put through two tests. Of the five helmets tested three had failed.

A few days later, Maliotis allegedly approached Kaias at his office and asked him to help have the helmets passed.

Kaias claimed Maliotis told him he could have anything he wanted.

A few days later he allegedly returned to Kaias and asked for four of the ‘good’ helmets to run his own tests.

Kaias claimed he then asked Maliotis for £3,000 as a test, and the businessmen allegedly agreed.

But the defence argued that because Kaias had failed to make an immediate complaint regarding Maliotis’ alleged behaviour, or a recording of the conversation, the testimony given in court should be considered unreliable.

Walking free from the court yesterday, Maliotis told journalists: “I’m very happy and I feel vindicated because this whole case has plagued me for months.”