TWO BRITISH laboratories have confirmed the photographs of a Limassol bishopric cleric engaged in a lewd act had been professionally doctored.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference yesterday, Limassol Bishop Athanasios produced copies of letters from two separate laboratories pronouncing the photos as fake.
“It has been scientifically proven, beyond any doubt, that the photos are forgeries, or as we more commonly say, a result of doctoring,” Athanasios said.
Data Genetics International Limited and Mask Technology Limited both assessed the images and determined they had been processed. The images were first published in Politis last week. The newspaper has steadfastly maintained the authenticity of the photos, even going so far as to publish the findings of experts, whom it claimed supported the pictures had been taken using a mobile phone camera.
But the UK experts disagree with Politis.
“The original images have been opened, processed in some way using Adobe software, and modified.
“The images presented for examination are not the originals created by the digital camera-phone, and therefore the content cannot be relied upon as a genuine photographic representation,” Data Genetics International said.
In its turn Mark Technology Ltd said: “We have undertaken a study of the images as posted in the said newspaper. What we have determined is that there appears to be evidence of image manipulation that could be the result of professional tampering.
“The quality of images is very poor, and the compression is high which makes the detection of image manipulation artefacts and hence analysis very difficult. However it is clear that the images are cropped and contain material that has been added later. There is also a perspective issue in some images and evidence of some strong compression block edges seen in ‘the area of interest’ that are far stronger than block edges the rest of the image. There may also be ‘too much’ of the priest’s left cheek visible in one of the images if the extent of his beard is examined.”
Mask Technology Ltd said a complete technical report on the analysis and finding would be available in two weeks from its British Government Home Office Assessed Forensic Imaging Systems which it used in its laboratory.
Archmandrite of the Limassol Bishopric Isaac Macheriotis has filed a libel suit against Politis, and is rumoured to be seeking between ?50,000 and ?250,000 in damages. The Archimandrite has also secured a court order prohibiting the daily from publishing anything about the personal life of the cleric in question.
