Diplomat’s defence team aims to ‘shoot down contradicting charges’

A FORMER Ambassador was in court yesterday facing 26 different charges, most of which are alleged sexual harassment charges.

Dressed in a smart blue suit and with his arms crossed, Costas Papadimas, a former Ambassador to Cyprus in Sweden, stood silently in front of a three-judge bench as his lawyer requested that some of the charges against his client be dropped.

Defence lawyer Rikos Erotokritou argued that some of the charges piled against his client were in fact contradicting the sexual harassment law of the European Union.

Most of the charges levelled against him are related to sexual harassment claims made by two female employees of the Embassy he was heading in Stockholm just under a year ago.

Papadimas has since returned to Cyprus from his post and is currently at the Foreign Ministry where he is at the disposal of the Minister.

Judge Michalis Christodoulou set the next court date for February 8, informing Erotokritou that he would have to sum up his argument in that session. Erotokritou had told the court that he would need around two hours to finish his summing up.

Meanwhile the court also ruled that Papadimas be bound to his next court appearance by the same terms that were imposed on him when the charges were first brought to the attention of the relative authorities.

Papadimas has been ordered to pay a £5,000 guarantee that he will attend the proceedings. The accused has also handed in his passport and travel documents and his name has been placed on the stop list.
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The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.