DISY deputy Christos Pourgourides yesterday insisted that the investigation into the Suphire affair was not being conducted properly.
He said such investigations should be meticulous and carried out with determination, confidentiality and without warning.
“When suspects are warned it is almost certain that evidence will be destroyed or tampered with.
“Let us hope it did not happen here; if there are charges it would mean that evidence was not destroyed,” Pourgourides said.
It has been a good 10 days since the case broke out and it was only on Sunday that police seized documents and computers from the company’s offices.
Pourgourides also took a shot at the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Marios Clerides, for his involvement in the case.
Clerides took it upon himself to set up a meeting between Suphire and the EAC in order to find a compromise, the DISY deputy said.
Is there a suspect who would agree to pay money without asking anything in exchange? Pourgourides asked.
In a written statement issued on Sunday, the DISY deputy described Clerides’ action as unacceptable.
He also stressed the need for the police to use expert personnel to assist them in the investigation in order for it to be full and successful.
Clerides yesterday rejected reports concerning his authority to give police evidence for the case.
He said the SEC could hand over evidence collected but the police would then have to confirm it again themselves.
“A testimony taken by the SEC cannot be used in whole by the police,” Clerides said.
“It is a legal issue,” he added.
According to Clerides, the police would have to go and recollect the evidence using their own procedures.
Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said the case had taken its course and there was no need to appoint another investigator.
Asked whether there was an issue concerning Clerides, Chrysostomides suggested that reports that he had set up the meeting between the company and the EAC had been proved wrong.
But when a reporter pointed out that it was EAC chairman George Georgiades who had said that Clerides had called him to arrange the meeting, Chrysostomides said the issue was under investigation.
He then distanced the government from issue, saying Clerides was an independent official and the government had no responsibility for his actions.
