By Charlie Charalambous
PRESIDENT Clerides’ refusal to accept the resignation of Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides has come under fire from coalition partner Edek as well as from opposition Akel.
Edek yesterday urged Clerides to reconsider his position and accept Michaelides’ resignation, which he seems reluctant to do.
Clerides declined to accept the minister’s resignation on Friday, despite the cabinet agreeing to appoint two independent investigators to probe specific corruption allegations against Michaelides.
Before leaving for London on Sunday, Clerides said Michaelides remained a minister but would abstain from his duties for the duration of the investigation.
The president not only defended his minister’s reputation, but chastised his accuser Christos Pourgourides for making “unfounded” allegations.
“As long as I am president, I will not allow any minister to be victimised unless an objective and thorough investigation takes place; otherwise there will not be honourable people who will accept the post,” Clerides said at Larnaca airport on Sunday.
“Ministers do not resign just because there is an accusation, when 11 have been dismissed because they do not stand up,” the President added.
Akel general-secretary Demetris Christofias said Clerides’ failure to accept Michaelides’ resignation was a “mistake”, and beyond any sense of fair play.
“In the end it won’t be as President Clerides fears, that we won’t find people to become minister, because everyone will want to be a minister,” Christofias said yesterday.
And Pourgourides hit back at Clerides, saying nobody would believe the President had taken the decision free of any “blackmail” from the minister.
“There can be no successful attempt to persuade the Cypriot people that the president and the cabinet took their decisions freely and without bowing to blackmail from the Interior Minister that he knows a lot about a lot of people and will open his mouth to say a lot about them,” Pourgourides said.
He has described the whole investigation into his allegations as a whitewash.
The Disy deputy said that, as far as he was concerned, Michaelides was politically responsible, which was enough to sack him.
“There is no doubt that the Interior Minister abused his position for unlawful enrichment,” said Pourgourides.
In a move to distance himself from his troublesome deputy, Disy leader Nicos Anastassiades accused Pourgourides of orchestrating a hate campaign against the minister and suggested the politician no longer had a place in his party.
Akel’s position was supported by Edek, which is represented in cabinet by Defence Minister Yiannakis Omirou and Education Minister Lycourgos Kappas. The Socialist Party agreed with Michaelides’ resignation and the appointment of two investigators, but disagreed with Clerides.
“The President of the Republic was wrong to refuse the minister’s resignation, considering that public officials who face a criminal or disciplinary investigation are suspended,” said yesterday’s Edek announcement.
The statement added: “accordingly, it is inconceivable for a political person of high office to remain in his post under similar circumstances.”
But Edek made no suggestion that it would withdraw its support from the government over the matter.
Although 11 of Pourgourides 14 charges of unlawful enrichment have been dismissed by Attorney-general Alecos Markides, the cabinet did agree to appoint investigators to gather further information on allegations of money laundering involving the £96,000 sale of an entire apartment floor building, and that the minister had illegally approved work and residence permits.
The cabinet also agreed that two further allegations be referred to the Ombudsman: these are that Michaelides obtained a £100,000 bank loan without security to buy shares in a company with major property developers, and the changing of building zones in the Kaloyeros area of Limassol where Michaelides built a house.
