Two sentenced for Mari released from jail

By Constantinos Psillides

FORMER fire service chief Andreas Nicolaou and deputy chief Charalambos Charalambous – both convicted for the 2011 Mari naval base explosion – were sent home on Monday.

The men will wear ankle bracelets until the end of their sentence on February 14. They are allowed to go to their jobs and their homes. The ankle bracelets are equipped with a GPS locator and an alarm that goes off if anyone tries to tamper with it or steps out of the pre-assigned perimeter.

Charalambous and Nicolaou were both handed down two year jail sentences in 2013 for reckless and dangerous acts that lead to the death of 13 people in the Mari explosion on July 2011. The island’s largest power station was severely damaged in the blast.

The explosion was caused by nearly 100 munitions containers that were left to boil under the sun at the naval base for two years until the munitions eventually exploded, killing seven sailors and six firemen who were trying to put out the fires that broke out at the storage site.

A third former officer, commander of the disaster response team EMAK Andreas Loizides, refused to wear an ankle bracelet and has opted to return to jail every night after work up to the time he will be officially released.

Former Defence Minister Costas Papacostas – who was sentenced to five years in jail for manslaughter – hasn’t served a day behind bars. He being is held at the Nicosia General Hospital where he remains in reportedly bad health. Former Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou was acquitted of all charges.

Both the convicts and the attorney-general’s office have appealed the sentences, the first claiming that were victimised while the latter demanding harsher sentencing.

 

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