Spokesman says Diko leader should look at own track record before throwing mud at president

Government spokesman Kyriacos Koushos on Sunday asked how Diko party leader Nikolas Papadopoulos can have an income from a lawyer’s office when he claims he does not practice law and years ago got rid of his shares in his law firm.

“How is it possible for Mr Nikolas Papadopoulos to state an official income from a law office when he does not practice law and has no law office?” Koushos asked in a written statement.

Papadopoulos, Koushos added, has never explained to who his shares were transferred and under what conditions.

At the same time he makes claims not backed up by evidence that President Anastasiades maintains a law office, Koushos added.

The spokesman also said that Papadopoulos has forgotten that his office and his family were involved in the Milosovic scandal which led the international community to accuse Cyprus of money laundering, “and it is very well known where that led”.

Let Mr Papadopoulos answer to this before he throws mud at the president, Koushos said, who has asked the attorney general to form a committee to look into the citizenship by investment programme in a judicial process as has been requested by the EU.

“Let Mr Papadopoulos stop underestimating the independent committee and its role, as well as indirectly insulting the credibility, dignity and prestige of its members.

“Let him stop politically using the Auditor General by making him the arm of his party for his petty political plans”.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.