THE government yesterday gave its full backing to the Attorney-general regarding his announcement last week to criminally prosecute five Justice Ministry officials over the Antonis Prokopiou Kitas fiasco.
Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said AG Petros Clerides had the government’s complete trust in spite of everything that had been published following Friday’s news conference. Nor would the government engage in the “chaotic discussions” that had ensued since then, he said.
“We have to be careful what we say about institutions, especially independent institutions such as the Attorney-general’s office,” he said.
Stefanou was commenting on Clerides’ and his deputy, Akis Papasavvas’, decision to indict four police officers and one Central Prisons official on criminal charges.
The names of the five have yet to be announced, however former Police Chief Iacovos Papacostas, who stepped down on Thursday, is not among the suspects.
The information sparked a huge outcry from opposition DISY which demanded to know why Papacostas had resigned if he had not been found criminally responsible and questioned if there had been some sort of trade-off to spare him.
During yesterday’s press briefing Stefanou refused to be drawn on the speculation. He said certain legal procedures had been followed involving the appointment of criminal investigators and that the AG had read their reports and made his decision.
“The procedure is simple, specific and I wonder why certain people want to confuse things,” he said.
Stefanou said the manner in which the public discussion was being conducted was damaging and exaggerated.
“Our aim is to get to the end and decisively deal with any negative phenomena there are in the police force and in general,” he said.
Regarding who would be appointed police chief following Papacostas’ resignation, Stefanou said the president would announce his decision when he was ready and refused to be coaxed into giving anything away. Whether the new chief would come from within the ranks was also an issue the government spokesman refused to confirm.
Meanwhile deputy AG Akis Papasavvas reiterated that there had been nothing clandestine in the meeting between Papasavvas and Clerides two days before the former had resigned as chief.
“Let’s not criminalise human relationships and go on a witch-hunt,” he said on a CyBC talk show.
Papasavvas said it had been a “momentary error” on the AG’s behalf to say there would be five and then later six people who would face criminal prosecution. It was this confusion that spurned the rumour that Papacostas had been facing indictment and then later dropped from the list of suspects.
The deputy AG said whether Clerides had said five or six was irrelevant since reporters had asked him whether the police suspects were in active duty and the AG had replied yes.
Papacostas had already resigned therefore the media had left the news conference knowing “indirectly, yet clearly” that the former police chief was not among the five, he said.
The deputy AG also pointed out that the AG and his role had been to examine whether any criminal and/or disciplinary responsibility warranted apportioning and that this was different to administrative responsibility or social responsibility.
He said the conclusions Clerides and he had announced on Friday stood and were unanimous.
On Friday Clerides and his deputy called a news conference to announce their conclusions after examining the criminal investigators’ reports into the incarceration, escape and subsequent recapturing of Kitas, a man convicted of two life sentences. Five police and prison personnel face criminal prosecution and six prison staff disciplinary charges.
Kitas, also known as Al Capone, was jailed for the brutal abductions, rapes and murders of Oksana Lisna, 20, and Christina Ahfeldt, 28 in 1993. He escaped from the Appollonion private hospital in Nicosia in December where he had been receiving treatment for gastric reflux. An islandwide manhunt ensued in his recapture on January 5.
