THE PUBLISHER of Politis newspaper appears in court tomorrow to answer charges of illegally transferring title deeds to a foreign company and attempting to deceive authorities, but the paper yesterday hit back, calling the charges against its boss an orchestrated campaign aimed at silencing it.
Yiannis Papadopoulos is under investigation in connection with the sale of shares of his company AMER to American multinational AC Nielsen back in 1994. According to the charges, Papadopoulos did so without permission from the Central Bank, thereby violating corporate taxation and currency exchange laws.
The first hearing in the trial gets under way tomorrow, and Papadopoulos could face a jail sentence and/or a hefty fine if found guilty.
The investigation was first launched by the Central Bank in August 2004 at the behest of its governor Christodoulos Christodoulou, after he received an “anonymous letter” from a bank official pointing out the discrepancies in the sale of AMER.
In late February of this year, then deputy Attorney-general Petros Clerides gave the go-ahead to police to commence criminal investigations.
But Politis yesterday wondered why the probe was ordered just one day before the alleged crime expired under the statute of limitations, 10 years after it was supposedly committed.
In a front-page editorial, the paper stood firmly behind Papadopoulos, noting that he was a respectable businessman who was the victim of pro-government quarters out to get him.
It also hinted that the charges were “payback” against Papadopoulos by Christodoulou, because Politis has in the past made several claims that the bank governor abused his position to promote his family’s interests.
At one point, Christodoulou had threatened to sue the daily when it contended that he arbitrarily secured benefits for himself and his wife. The alleged benefits were: travel expenses for the governor’s wife when accompanying him on official visit abroad, and a driver and a car for Christodoulou after his retirement. These privileges, the paper had pointed out, were reserved for the President and the House Speaker.
At the time, Christodoulou protested that Politis was waging a “crusade” against him, but yesterday he categorically denied that the present charges against Papadopoulos were motivated by that.
For his part, Papadopoulos issued a scathing announcement, attributing the accusations to a “witch hunt” against himself and his paper. He said that the sale of his share in AMER was not subject to taxation, and that in any case the Central Bank was well aware of the transaction and took no action at the time.
In its editorial, Politis attributed the charges to an underhand attempt by the “establishment” to silence it because the paper has been highly critical of the administration and a number of government ministers.
