JUSTICE Minister Nicos Koshis yesterday refused to comment on an ongoing row with Chief of Police Andreas Angelides, which has dealt another blow to the Clerides government.
Reports yesterday suggested Angelides would be called to the Presidential Palace to account for himself after the Government Spokesman said on Thursday that President Clerides would intervene to end the embarrassing developments.
The row centres on whether Koshis informed Angelides of the alleged plot against his life on the weekend of April 1, when the Minister was visiting London.
Scotland Yard pulled out all the stops to protect Koshis, but the biggest trouble started on his return.
Koshis said he had informed Angelides of the plot, but the police chief has said publicly he was told nothing by the Minister.
Speculation was rife yesterday that Angelides, whose appointment was backed by the highest echelons of Disy, had been involved in setting Koshis up for a public fall because of the Minister’s doggedness in proceeding with a criminal case involving Disy leader Nicos Anastassiades’ twin brother Bambos.
Bambos Anastassiades is currently on trial for his alleged connection to a scam involving the sale of visas to cabaret artistes.
However, well-know anti-corruption crusader, Disy deputy Christos Pourgourides, said yesterday there was no behind-the- scenes conspiracy against Koshis.
At the same time Pourgourides said the row between Koshis and Angelides was "a joke" and urged the two men to put an end to it.
"It’s a pointless discussion basically, like a joke, and to continue it will only cause further damage," Pourgourides said.
"For a long time now I have been insisting at every opportunity that as public figures we have to find the strength sometimes to ignore the microphones that are put in front of us and not make any statements. In this case, two public figures, I’m sorry to say, have in the last few days made non-stop statements over this issue with actually having anything to say."
A statement by the European Renewal Party was slightly harsher.
"It seems the government cannot keep its house in order. The European Renewal Party will not take part in the discussion on who was informed and who was not, but because we have bitter experience of various conspiracies in the past, we demand that the government inform people responsibly on threats against Mr Koshis, who stubbornly refuses to clarify the situation."
The statement said that if the underworld was indeed threatening the government it was a wider political issue and not the personal secret of the Minister of Justice.
It added that two people chosen by the President himself as part of his administration were showing the government in a bad light.
"The President seems to be above and beyond what is going on not only in Cyprus but in his own government," the statement said.
