Phedonos requests defamation ruling against him be cancelled

Paphos Mayor Phedonas Phedonos on Tuesday filed a request to have a court judgement passed in his absence cancelled.

Earlier, the Larnaca District court ruled that damages of up to €30,000 be paid by the mayor in a civil case filed by the president of the Pancyprian Organisation of Grain Producers and the Pangrarian Association of Cyprus Kyriacos Kailas.

Phedonos said he only learnt of the court’s ruling for defamation damages from the media and that the ruling was passed in absentia.

“The only thing I can recall now, is that I had been served with a summons issued by the Larnaca District Court for alleged defamations, which due to my heavy schedule and frequent travel abroad, and not due to negligence or disrespect towards the court or the plaintiff, but rather by human mistake, was misplaced and mixed in with other documents in my office, as I discovered today, after the announcement and my absence in court,” Phedonos said.

The mayor added that once he had read the court’s decision in the media and he found the summons he contacted his lawyers and gave them instructions to file a request to cancel the ruling. “My absence in court with a lawyer is due to a mistake,” he said, noting that the summons must have been in the large number of documents left on his desk daily.

“I have a good defence for the claimed defamation case, and I will prove that all my claims were true,” Phedonos said.

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