THE MOST important political aspect of the Matsakis case is not so much the alleged behaviour of the newly-MEP but that of the president and the Attorney-general. The deplorable handling of this case is a measure of Tassos Papadopoulos’ qualities as a politician and of the “big and substantive change” brought about by the leadership of AKEL.
Media and politicians are wrong in appealing to Matsakis and urging him to resign so that Cyprus could be spared the humiliation at the European parliament. But the big humiliation for the state and our institutions has been caused by the president’s behaviour and choices as regards this case. And it is his resignation that people appealing to Matsakis should really be seeking.
Here the facts speak for themselves. On April 23, the president and party leader of Matsakis was briefed by the Justice Minister about the allegations. And, as he has said, he sent the case to the Attorney-general. He did not consider it necessary to call Matsakis to his office and tell him the obvious thing, that would have been along the following lines:
‘The police have made some serious allegations against you. I am not the one who will investigate them as that is the Attorney-general’s job. But I want you to tell me what is happening, because even if one tenth of what they are alleging is true I will not agree to you standing in the Euro-elections because we would run the risk of being embarrassed both as a country and as a party.’
Not only did he not do this but, as he had claimed, two months later he did not bother to find out what had happened to the case.
These are the facts: On April 29, the Chief of Police briefed the Attorney-general Solon Nikitas about the case and asked for instructions on how to proceed. On April 30, the Attorney-general replied to the chief in writing.
His letter is the key in the matter of who should carry the can. Nikitas, in a written statement on June 18, implied that the police had not proceeded to secure the documentary material that would have justified an application to the Supreme Court for the lifting of Matsakis’ parliamentary immunity. But after hearing public statements by the Chief of Police, the assistant Attorney-general and a senior state counsel, as well as reading relevant press reports, one could speculate that Nikitas had discouraged additional investigation of the case.
If this were true, then one could deduce that such a decision could have been taken only with the agreement of the president. Nobody is so naïve to believe that Nikitas took the decision not to order a police investigation but omitted to inform the president who had referred the case to him in the first place. If he did inform the president then we are facing a very serious issue. It would be Papadopoulos and Nikitas who should be submitting their resignations, and not Matsakis.
The Attorney-general has an obligation, under the circumstances, to release a copy of the letter he had sent to the police on April 30. The letter would make it clear that president and Attorney-general had done nothing wrong. If they do not release it, we could deduce, rightly or wrongly, that they have something to hide. But even if Nikitas does not make the letter public, the Chief of Police should. The force which he leads has been accused of failing, for close to two months, to proceed with an investigation of what could be a serious offence. Furthermore, as an official, he has an obligation to help citizens find out the truth.
In addition to this I would like to set a hypothetical scenario. Imagine in February 2003, the maverick Costas Ioannou ‘Utopos’, was elected president. Do you think that ‘Utopos’ would have been able, for 56 days, to go to bed every night, sleep happily, get up every morning and go to the office, as if nothing had happened, without even bothering to ask – not even once – what had happened with the investigation of police allegations against a Euro-candidate of his party? And would we feel comfortable with his conscience because he did the right thing? And if this were the case, why should Matsakis resign?
