Assistant professor of the University of Technology (Tepak) Antonis Theocharous, who is a prosecution witness in the recent scandal concerning the alleged misappropriation of EU-funds for research programmes at the Limassol-based university, said on Friday he had filed for police protection after he and his family received threats.
Theocharous is the person who reported in August the case concerning misappropriation of EU-funds for research programmes at Tepak and the Oceanography Centre of the University of Cyprus (UCy). The case concerns 23 EU co-funded programmes worth €5 million between 2008 and 2015. The prime suspect is a female former employee of Tepak, Rozita Pavlidou, who managed the research programmes in question. She is believed to have abused her position to force professors to hire her relatives for research programmes and threaten them if they posed any objections.
One witness claimed Pavlidou had said she knew people in the underworld and that ‘it would only take a phone call to place a bomb somewhere’.
Pavlidou was arrested along with 13 other following the report, among them two senior officials at the University of Cyprus, an external associate, a 36-year-old architect, Tepak professor Costas Costa and Pavlidou’s relatives.
Some have been released, while seven suspects were referred last week to the Limassol criminal court for trial. The court will convene on November 29.
Speaking to state broadcaster CyBC, Theocharous, who is among the main prosecution witnesses, expressed fears for he and his family’s lives after receiving threats. He said that he asked for police protection last week, after the people who had made the threats were released.
Theocharous said that as one of the main persecution witnesses, and as one to take the risk of reporting this case and others concerning mismanagement at Tepak, he was concerned for the safety of his wife and child.
Theocharous said that some people within the university had tried to muzzle him and discredit him in the past after he had made other reports concerning some of his colleagues who have no base in Cyprus and travel to and from the island, people allegedly travelling for conferences but going on recreational trips with their families instead and illegal hiring cases and promotions.
