A SELF-confessed drug addict was yesterday given a second chance by a Nicosia Court after the judge decided to suspend the charges pending against him in two serious cases.
It was the second time that the man had been handed a suspended sentence by a court.
The court had previously heard throughout the trial that 48-year-old Costas Katsiolas has recently been battling his heroin addiction and that although still being far from over his addiction, doctors have confirmed that he has made significant improvement.
According to doctors, Katsiolas, who is now married with a young son and is working for the Strovolos Municipality, has been a drug addict since the early eighties.
But his problems mounted considerably when he was arrested on two separate occasions in 2004 first for assaulting and causing the grievous bodily harm of a police officer and secondly for being in possession of five grams of heroin.
Katsiolas’ defence lawyer Michalis Stamataris had argued that his client had come close to death particularly after his addiction spiralled out of control following his arrest for drug possession and assaulting a police officer.
According to the charge sheet, Katsiolas was cornered by officers after being caught in possession of heroin and initially attacked one of the arresting officers with his defence claiming that he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, Stamataris said, “It is apparent that my client did have serious problems with drugs which in many ways played a massive role for his arrest for drug possession and assaulting the police officer.”
He adds, “His condition got so bad that apart from spending one month at the rehabilitation centre in Limassol, he also checked into a rehabilitation clinic in Bulgaria for five months.”
The ruling was a success for the defence team of Katsiolas who had pleaded with Judge Angelos David to give Katsiolas, who they promised was now a changed man on the road to recovery, a second chance.
In 2002, Katsiolas was given a three year suspended sentence for being in possession of 150 grams of cannabis.
Ruling on both cases yesterday, Judge David said that he understood that the defendant was “a fellow citizen of a mature age that has waging a long battle against the tragic phenomenon of drugs in our society.”
For the charge of assault, the judge jailed him for six months before suspending his sentence for two years. For the drugs possession, Katsiolas was given a 12 month jail term before the judge once again suspended the sentence for three years.
“Society is giving you another chance” the judge told the tearful Katsiolas, “think of your job, think of your family and once and for all end your relationship with these ‘friends’ you call drugs. You do know that you are lucky to be alive because unfortunately most of the heroin addicts that appear in my court almost always end up dead.”
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