A NICOSIA court yesterday acquitted an army Colonel charged with leaking military documents relating to an alleged clandestine group monitoring the political persuasions of army officers for governing DISY.
Colonel Loizos Fessas was charged last summer amid a stormy political row between DISY and main opposition party AKEL over the alleged undercover group, labeled a “paramilitary” committee by AKEL.
Defence Minister and DISY man Socratis Hasikos yesterday said the court’s decision proved the monitoring group never existed. But the man who first levelled the “paramilitary” group allegations, AKEL deputy Costas Papacostas, insisted the court ruling did not prove DISY had not kept tabs on army personnel’s political affiliations.
The court threw out the case against Fessas, judging that there was no case for the accused to answer. Fessas was charged with breaching army security by leaving documents relating to the alleged clandestine monitoring group lying around. Papacostas says these “secret” documents later found their way into his hands.
The court found that there was no actual testimony linking Fessas to the alleged offence. It also noted that while the contents of the documents allegedly mishandled by Fessas were “questionable and suspicious” there were also many gaps in the prosecution case.
Fessas himself greeted the court’s decision as his vindication, and thanked God, his friends and family for the support he said they had given him.
Hasikos was also keen to hail the acquittal as the end of the paramilitary saga. “The court decision vindicates the National Guard’s findings,” the Minister said, referring to an earlier army probe that had found no substance to the AKEL allegations. Hasikos charged the opposition party with trying to score political points through the “paramilitary” issue and called for “respect” for yesterday’s the court decision.
But Papacostas was not about to drop the issue. He said the issue was not just legal, but, “above all”, political.
“For us the position remains that the paramilitary group was set up and functioned within the ranks of DISY and the political liabilities remain, independent of whether this was proved before the courts,” Papacostas said. The former assistant police chief said he respected the court decision but then added: “If there is a crime and the suspect is caught, even red-handed, and the prosecution does not secure a conviction, this does not mean the crime was not committed.”
The AKEL man said he was sure the House Defence Committee would continue its probe into the “political responsibilities” relating to the clandestine monitoring group issue.
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