THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S office suspended prosecution for a man who allegedly acted as the middleman in the trafficking of 12 kilos of cannabis, officials said yesterday.
Attorney-general Petros Clerides and his deputy Akis Papasavvas said yesterday the needed to explain their position following reports in daily Politis, which made various allegations regarding the reasons behind the decision.
The decision concerning the 2008 case was made by Papasavvas as Clerides was abroad at the time.
Police had arrested a Dutch woman, who brought the drugs to Cyprus, before they were handed over to the designated recipient.
A man, who acted as a middleman in the deal was promised protection by the police if he gave up the recipient of the drugs and acted as a prosecution witness.
But the person suspected of being the recipient apparently fled Cyprus and the witness was taken into custody to face trial for his involvement.
The controversy now centres on the fact that during the trial, deputy Attorney-general Papasavvas upheld a suggestion from the defendant’s lawyer to suspend the prosecution.
“He was given promises that he would not be charged and would be a witness,” Papasavvas told reporters.
Papasavvas said he went ahead with this decision since “it was possible, if not certain”, that the court would have acquitted the defendant.
“For me it was clearly wiser to suspend the prosecution,” he said.
It is understood that the main suspect, the recipient of the suitcase, was located after about a year but meanwhile the witness had left the island.
Neither was prosecuted.
The Dutch woman is currently doing a seven year sentence.
Papasavvas, clearly unhappy about the way Politis presented the issue, told a news conference he was suing the newspaper as well as Offsite, an electronic news outlet and weekly newspaper Pontiki which reproduced the claims.
And some heated words were traded during the news conference with the Politis journalist covering the matter.
Clerides did not say whether his second-in-command was right or wrong in taking the decision but stressed that it was within his authority to do so.
“In my absence he has right to handle the case in any way he saw fit,” Clerides said. “In no way do I adopt these base motives attributed to him (Papasavvas).”
Papasavvas said the newspaper left unacceptable innuendos and stressed that it did not matter who the person was when they handled a case.
