THE LAST witness testimonies for the prosecution in the Mari trial are expected to be heard early next month, it was reported yesterday.
According to state broadcaster CyBC, the prosecution has invited three more witnesses to testify in the trial on the deadly naval base blast, which killed seven sailors and six fire fighters, while injuring dozens on July 11, 2011. The final three will take the number of witnesses called by the prosecution to around 120.
State prosecutor Polina Efthyvoulou told the Larnaca criminal court yesterday that four other witnesses – three senior fire service officials and a national guard lieutenant – originally down to testify have been deemed unreliable by the prosecution and will not be called. A fifth is suffering psychological problems and won’t be called either, she said.
The remaining three witness testimonies are expected to come from three Cypriot diplomats, starting with Michalis Stavrinou today.
On February 5, former director of the President’s Diplomatic Office and current Cypriot ambassador to Switzerland Leonidas Pantelides will testify before the court. Two days later, Cypriot ambassador Giorgos Yiangou will also testify.
The Larnaca criminal court heard four more testimonies yesterday including that of naval base car mechanic Soteris Christou who told the court that on July 8, 2011, he was asked to take the base fire truck and pour two tonnes of water over the deformed container among the 98 filled with munitions.
Christou told the court he was surprised to see the water sprayed on the deformed container turn to steam even though it was only 8am.
The fourth testimony was that of Lieutenant Commander Ioannis Tsiannis whose testimony was told to the court by a police sergeant, as Tsiannis is suffering neurological problems following the blast and was not in a position to testify himself in court.
The trial’s defendants are former foreign minister Marcos Kyprianou, former defence minister Costas Papacostas, former national guard deputy chief Savvas Argyrou, former fire service chief Andreas Nicolaou; deputy fire chief Charalambos Charalambous; and former disaster response squad (EMAK) commander Andreas Loizides. They are charged with causing death by want of precaution, and homicide by gross negligence in relation to the deaths of the 13 people.
