‘Star witnesses’ to testify next week at co-op probe

 

A number of ‘star witnesses’ will next week be testifying before the committee investigating the reasons for the demise of the Cyprus Co-op.

Taking the stand on Monday (9am) will be Constandinos Lyras, former head of the cooperative supervising authority. It will be Lyras’ second appearance before the panel.

At 12pm the committee is scheduled to hear former Central Bank governor Panicos Demetriades, who will testify via teleconference.

He will be followed by former finance minister Charilaos Stavrakis, at 2.30pm.

Wednesday’s proceedings will begin with the testimony of George Syrichas, former executive director at the Bank of Cyprus. Next up are Yiangos Demetriou, head of licencing and supervision at the Central Bank, and Constandinos Herodotou, a senior executive at the Central Bank.

According to a press release, the proceedings over the coming week will be held at the ‘Jean Monnet’ hall in the Filoxenia conference centre.

The proceedings will be open to the public and the media. However, photography and audio-visual recording will be prohibited while the committee is in session.

The media may take footage from inside the room up to four minutes before the session commences.

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.