THE GIRLFRIEND of prime prosecution witness Fanos Hadjigeorgiou yesterday broke down in court when she was repeatedly accused of lying to protect her partner.
Yiota Pendodji burst into tears when defence lawyer Michalis Pikis continually accused her of lying to help Hadjigeorgiou.
Despite Pikis’ assertions Pendodji remained adamant that she was telling the truth.
The witness was testifying as part of the ongoing murder trial of media boss Andis Hadjicostis.
Pendodji said Hadjigeorgiou, who has since confessed he was driving the getaway motorbike on the night of the murder and has been granted immunity from prosecution, had “regretted” what he’d done and “felt guilty”.
She reiterated that Hadjigeorgiou had only confessed to his involvement in the crime after much pressure from her.
When Pikis wanted to know why Pendodji had failed to mention these details in her original police statement and was only now revealing them in court, she replied she’d said what she’d considered important.
“After the murder a lot of things happened. I didn’t say everything. I said what I thought was important for my man,” she said.
During yesterday’s court proceedings Pendodji was shown a news clip of Hadjigeorgiou in handcuffs and telling reporters “we are innocent”. The clip was shown as part of defence lawyer Marios Georgiou’s cross-examination of the witness.
When Georgiou asked Pendodji if her partner looked remorseful after the murder, she said: “I know my man and I saw he felt guilty and was remorseful. He repented and was upset.”
Georgiou questioned why the court should believe her testimony when she had lied twice in her statements and now for the third time was claiming to tell the truth. The defence lawyer even made reference to Aesop’s fables and ‘the boy who cried wolf’.
Pendodji said she had wanted to help Hadjigeorgiou because she loved him and had acted as anyone would. She said there was even a law that exempted wives to testify against their husbands.
The trial continues on Monday morning.
Hadjicostis was shot outside his home on the night of January 11, 2010. Four people stand accused of his murder including former media presenter Elena Skordelli, her brother Tasos Krasopoulis, Andreas Gregoriou, and Gregoris Xenofontos who has been charged with carrying out the hit. All four were implicated following Hadjigeorgiou’s confession which he gave in exchange for immunity from prosecution and entry into the witness protection programme.
The cross-examination of any prosecution witness is a lengthy process because all four defendants have their own defence lawyers.
