By Martin Hellicar
THE GOVERNMENT yesterday sought to distance itself from Attorney-general Alecos Markides’s decision to drop spying charges against two Israeli nationals.
Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides said the government would not accept responsibility for Friday’s controversial decision – which could mean that suspects Udi Hargov, 37, and Igal Damary, 49, walk free tomorrow.
The Attorney-general’s office made its decisions independently of the government, and Markides had accepted full responsibility for the decision to water down the charges against the two suspects, the CyBC quoted Cassoulides as saying.
The decision only to charge Hargov and Damary with possession of illegal listening devices and approaching a prohibited area – charges to which they pleaded guilty – caused a storm of protest from opposition parties. Akel and Diko both claimed the government had bowed to pressure from the Israeli government to release the two spying suspects.
The Israelis, arrested at a holiday flat in the Zygi area on November 7 last year, were originally charged with spying against Cyprus and its military facilities.
Markides yesterday again denied the decision to drop the spying charges had been taken under pressure from Israel.
He tried to present the suspects’ guilty pleas to the reduced charges as a diplomatic victory for Cyprus. The pleas were tantamount to an admission by Israel that Hargov and Damary had been in Cyprus on behalf of Israel without the prior knowledge or permission of the Cyprus government, he said.
Markides’s statement contradicted what lawyer Andis Triantafyllides, who leads the two Israelis’ defence team, had told the Larnaca Assizes during Friday’s hearing. Triantafyllides said Israel had repeatedly informed the government of an elite Israeli anti-terrorist mission operating in Cyprus. He told the court Hargov and Damary were part of this mission and had not been spying against Cyprus.
Markides also repeated yesterday that he did not believe state prosecutors had sufficient evidence to convict the two suspects on spying charges.
Police said they found radio scanners and maps in the suspects’ holiday flat at the time of their arrest.
The Attorney-general has stated the decision to drop spying charges was “in the national interest,” because a lengthy spying trial could have meant military secrets being aired in court before the suspects and their Israeli lawyers.
Hargov and Damary are to be sentenced by the Larnaca Assizes court tomorrow.
They could face up to six years behind bars for approaching a prohibited area, but the defence has pleaded for mitigation on the grounds that Hargov and Damary were not collecting information against Cyprus.
The prosecution say the suspects were sighted in the Zigy area during sensitive National Guard operations.
