THE STATE prosecution yesterday quizzed a former ambassador currently facing charges of sexual harassment against two of his secretaries during his term in Stockholm between 2001 and 2005
Former Cypriot Ambassador to Sweden Costas Papadimas denies the charges, with his lawyer Efstathios Efstathiou accusing one of the secretaries, Alexandra Zioga, 35, of exacting revenge on the Ambassador because he would not leave his wife and two children for her.
Efstathiou also accused Zioga of conspiring with the Embassy deputy head Andreas Kettis, her fianc? Demetris Vasiliou and another secretary, Sofia Raptidou, in an effort to “destroy the Ambassador”.
Last Thursday, the former Ambassador took the stand and told the court that Zioga had become infatuated with him and turned his life into a “living nightmare” because he would not leave his wife for her.
Yesterday, State Prosecutor Panayiota Kythreotou accused Papadimas of lying to the court in claiming he was a victim of intrigues, while putting it to him that he had been systematically tormenting his two secretaries and especially Zioga.
“I put it to you that you have been lying and that you and Zioga were not having an affair, as you claim. Alexandra Zioga was a victim of your continuous assault over the two years,” said Kythreoutou.
“This is all fantasy and lies,” replied the former ambassador. “Everyone knew that she had an obsession with me. We had an affair, which I regret deeply, but I never once made advances on her. She always made the advances on me.”
“Are you saying that you were the one that was being sexually harassed?” asked Kythreotou.
“No,” Papadimas replied, “We were having an affair and so she sometime frequently touch me in various ways when were alone together.”
Zioga claims the 55-year-old diplomat had systematically harassed her, pinning her into a corner and kissing her, masturbating in front of her, groping her, and pushing his crotch in her face as she was sitting down in front of him during a dictation session.
Papadimas says Kettis, who is still stationed at the Embassy in Sweden, to have helped engineer the accusations following an argument he had with the Ambassador’s wife over who should have the right to the Embassy car when the Ambassador is out of the country.
The 29-year-old diplomat is said to have been worried that Papadimas would file a complaint report against him because of the row he had with his wife.
The trial continues on October 23.
