THE CHARGES against two former ministers in connection to last July’s explosion at the Mari naval base yesterday caused a storm.
“That two former ministers are facing charges before court… makes me wonder for the nth time what the President’s responsibility is?” the vice-chief of main opposition DISY Ionas Nicolaou said.
Former foreign minister Marcos Kyprianou, ex-Defence Minister Costas Papacostas with six army and fire service officers were charged on Tuesday with manslaughter and causing death through a negligent act for their respective roles leading up to the blast at the Evangelos Florakis naval base on July 11.
“How is it possible for ministers to be responsible and for their political supervisor not to be?” EDEK’s secretary general Demetris Papadakis said.
“The criminalisation of politics is a dangerous diversion from the concept of legal and democratic order,” the head of former coalition party DIKO, Marios Garoyian, said when news broke on Tuesday.
Garoyian said that Kyprianou’s responsibility was political and not criminal.
“That someone may be a politician facing charges which are a criminal offence – even when those actions are connected with his political office – this does not by itself mean criminalising politics,” Nicolaou said yesterday.
He said that for the sake of political catharsis “it must be understood and accepted that political people will be led to court when their actions constitute criminal offences”.
Nicolaou, along with nearly every other political party, said Christofias should have been indicted.
Ruling party AKEL’s Yiannos Lamaris meanwhile said that political and criminal responsibilities were two different things.
Attorney-general Petros Clerides said last week that no criminal case against Christofias could be brought.
Christofias has immunity during his term under article 45 of the Constitution except for high treason, dishonourable offences or an offence “involving moral turpitude” in which case the Attorney-general can go to the Supreme Court to lift his immunity.
Chris Triantafyllides, the lawyer of the family of late fireman Panayiotis Theofilou who was killed on July 11 said they would go to the Supreme Court themselves to lift Christofias’ immunity.
“There was no effort to legally give the police the opportunity to investigate (Christofias’) involvement and possible guilt,” Triantafyllides said.
The Indignant agreed and yesterday accused Clerides of “selective justice”.
Asked to comment on whether only Clerides was capable of lifting the president’s immunity, Triantafyllides said individuals could also go to court.
He told the Mail that the family of Captain Andreas Ioannides, the navy commander who died in the blast, would be doing the same.
The three army officers and three top firemen facing charges are: former NG chief Petros Tsalikidis; former NG deputy chief Savvas Argyrou; Colonel Georgios Georgiades – deputy commander of the third support brigade and former commander of the ordnance corps; fire service chief Andreas Nicolaou; deputy chief Charalambos Charalambous and head of EMAK (Special Disaster Response Team) Andreas Loizides.
Papacostas and Tsalikidis resigned hours after the blast while Kyprianou declared his intention to resign a week later “for reasons of political sensitivity”.
The cabinet sacked Argyrou for reasons of “national interest” in August while Georgiades was suspended.
All three firemen were suspended.
Tsalikidis is currently in his home country of Greece, and it was still not clear yesterday whether he would return or be charged in his absence.
It is understood that some or all of those charged face additional charges.
A total of 98 containers containing munitions, left exposed to elements for over two years, exploded in the summer killing seven sailors and six firemen, and crippling Cyprus’ main power station.
