By George Psyllides
The Supreme Court on Friday acquitted fire service chief Andreas Nicolaou who had been found guilty in 2013 in connection with a naval base blast that killed 13 sailors and firemen.
The court also upheld the convictions of former defence minister Costas Papacostas and two other senior firemen and rejected the state’s appeal against the acquittal of former foreign minister Marcos Kyprianou.
Papacostas had appealed against his conviction and sentence. The former minister had been found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in jail.
His family said they will file an appeal at the European Court.
Papacostas has been in hospital since his conviction. His family said his health is getting worse by the day.
Nicolaou had been sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of causing death due to reckless and dangerous acts.
It is understood that he will now return to his post.
Senior fireman Charalambos Charalambous and Andreas Loizides, former commander of the disaster response team EMAK had been jailed for two years for causing death due to reckless and dangerous acts.
Nicolaou was acquitted by majority vote – seven to five. The seven judges judged that the criminal court was wrong in convicting him because Nicolaou had been on leave in the run up to the blast and had not been giving instructions.
The majority of the judges also ruled that he had no direct involvement with the cargo to know the dangers.
The court said Kyprianou was acquitted because the attorney-general did not convince judges that he had the right to appeal under the circumstances. The Supreme Court rejected the appeal without getting into the substance.
The July 11, 2011 blast was caused by munitions haphazardly stored at the Evangelos Florakis naval base in Mari.
The munitions, stored in 98 containers, had been confiscated in 2009 from a Cyprus-flagged ship en route to Syria.
They were then stacked in an open space at the base and left exposed to the elements until the day of the explosion, despite repeated warnings about the risks.
The blast killed seven sailors and six firemen and caused significant damage to the island’s biggest power station, located next door, which had a crippling effect on the already ailing economy.
