By Athena Karsera
ASSISTANT Attorney-general Nicos Charalambous yesterday raised the stakes in his dispute with the House Health Committee, from which he stormed out on Thursday when deputies called him to justify one of his decisions.
Charalambous said that if the House insisted that he should explain his stance on the tenders’ procedure in the Erythropoetine scandal, he would take the issue to the Supreme Court.
He walked out on Thursday saying he the House had no right to call on him to explain his decision.
Deputies were questioning Charalambous on a report released earlier this week, which found there was no criminal case to answer concerning the tenders process for the supply of the kidney drug.
Police are still investigating why hospitals were allowed to run out of the life-enhancing drug.
Charalambous yesterday said that if the House insisted that it had the right to police the decisions of the Attorney-general, he would appeal to the Supreme Court.
“This decision, not to follow a criminal prosecution, is clearly linked to court procedures and therefore cannot be policed by the House, the Cabinet or even the courts themselves.”
Charalambous said that until now only a number of deputies had asked for clarification, but that if this turned out to be the official position of the House, “then the difference will be sorted out by the Supreme court to which I will appeal.”
But Disy deputy Rikkos Erotocritou yesterday insisted that Charalambous was obliged to tell deputies the reasons behind his decision.
He said deputies were not trying to question the way in which Charalambous carried out his duties, but wanted to be informed about why the specific decision had been taken.
“He was obliged to inform the House. No one was asking him to violate his responsibilities,” Erotocritou said. “He has already issued an announcement explaining to reporters the reasons behind his decision in detail, so why can’t he tell the House?”
Edek deputy Doros Theodorou described Charalambous’ behaviour in walking out as “unfortunate”, and wondered if the Attorney-general’s office was at war with the House.
On Thursday, Charalambous said it had been long established that Parliament and the courts could not monitor the Attorney-general’s office in its constitutional duties.
He referred to a statement to this effect by former Attorney-general Kritonas Tournarides, saying that because of this he did not believe the Committee was the relevant body to question his ruling.
Also speaking after the Thursday meeting, Theodorou said that Charalambous’ waking out of the Committee had been insulting to the Parliament.
Several committee members noted that past Attorney-generals including Alecos Markides had never reacted in this way.
Markides recently was asked to explain his decision to various House committees on several issues including the summer release of the two Israelis believed to be spies.
The investigation into the Erythropoetine scandal was launched after an uproar over the disappearance of large quantities of the kidney drugs from ministry stores and revelations of huge delays in replacing them.
An earlier investigation by the Auditor-general’s office found the ministry had been too slow in procuring fresh Erythropoetine stocks, even though it was aware of the urgent need.
Part of the ongoing police probe is examining information that the medicine found its way to the Nicosia ace-track, where it was allegedly used to dope race horses.
The recent report also caused temporary waves between Health Minister Frixos Savvides and Charalambous.
On Wednesday Savvides said that he had been emotionally overloaded when initially slamming Charalambous’ report as preventative to further investigations.
Savvides continued that he now agreed with almost all of the report’s findings.
