AFTER a year of legal stalemate, the Committee of Legal Affairs of the European Parliament has adopted a proposal by German MEP Klaus-Heiner Lehne to vote on whether the EU should lift parliamentary immunity for Cypriot MEP Marios Matsakis.
The final decision on whether or not to lift Matsakis’ immunity will be made after a vote in the plenum either on September 26 or on October 12. If the plenum votes to lift Matsakis’ immunity, the Cyprus Attorney-general will be informed and then the Cypriot authorities will have the right to pursue their possible criminal investigation into Matsakis.
Matsakis is implicated in two separate incidents, the first having to do with alleged blackmail of a police officer and the second with illegal possession of antiquities that allegedly came from the occupied north.
In June 2004 Politis published a damning report about Matsakis, in which the drug squad deputy chief detailed how Matsakis had alleged blackmailed a police officer charged for attempted manslaughter. The report claimed that Matsakis had told the policeman that the criminal investigator was his friend and that he could help him out for £10,000.
The report further noted that the discussions between Matsakis and the policeman had been recorded. The allegations were especially damning because Matsakis, who was a pathologist, was to be testifying on behalf of the man who had been shot by the policeman.
Less than a month later, Matsakis faced claims, again first printed in a Politis article, that he was involved in a ring that smuggled antiquities from the occupied areas of Cyprus. Matsakis’ parliamentary immunity posed problems for securing a home search warrant.
Matsakis responded by saying that he did have some artefacts with the aim of “safeguarding and rescuing our cultural heritage”. He filed two libel suits against Politis for £250,000 each, claiming that the allegations were slander in a conspiracy to silence him.
The legal battle to lift his parliamentary immunity has been raging for over a year now. This past June the Supreme Court stated that it did not have the authority to order a lifting of Matsakis’ immunity.
According to the Cyprus Constitution, only the Supreme Court is authorised to take such action for deputies, but it does not specify what happens when MEPs are involved. It is standard practice, however, for the European Parliament to order the lifting of an MEPs immunity.
The German MEP Klaus-Heiner Lehne, who headed the committee to send the vote to the plenum, was not available for comment, as he was out of the office yesterday.
DIKO deputy leader Nikos Cleanthous said in statements that they had decided that Matsakis, a former DIKO MP, could no longer participate in the party, adding that “it is important for all of us to keep a distance so that justice can be carried out.”
In reference to the coming vote in the European plenum, Government Spokesman Kypros Chyrsostomides said that “when the legal proceedings are completed in the European Parliament then ours will begin”.
Matsakis told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that he would be arriving in Cyprus last night, although he refrained from further comment.
