THE WEEKEND publication of the testimony of a key witness in the Andis Hadjicostis murder investigation could allow three people accused of the crime to walk free, it emerged yesterday.
Politis newspaper’s decision to print the entire contents of Theophanis Hadjigeorgiou’s seven-page statement incriminating TV presenter Elena Skordelli, 42, her brother Tasos Krasopoulis, 37, and Andreas Gregoriou, 33, could result in the declaration of an “unfair trial”.
Branded “irresponsible” and “inexcusable” by senior police sources, the newspaper could very well have contributed towards allowing the three accused to go home.
Insiders close to the defence team said the trio’s lawyers, including Michalis Pikis, Michalakis Kyprianou and Marios Georgiou, are already planning to file for an unfair trial.
According to legal sources unlike the UK Cyprus does not have a jury trial but a “trial by judge” system. Although the Supreme Court has ruled that publication of materials in the press do not influence judges, who are professionals, it has stated that it can influence witnesses because they are lay people. In other words other witnesses involved in the trial or Hadjigeorgiou himself could be influenced by what they read or hear in the press.
“The witnesses can be influenced and then this affects the outcome of the trial,” said a lawyer who wished to remain unnamed.
Saturday’s publication of the statement prompted police to launch an immediate investigation into the incident, as did the paper’s insinuation that the leak had come from the police and not the defence team.
The police press office also issued a statement commenting on the leak, which came only days after Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou ordered a complete ban on comments to the media from members of the force.
“The police chief’s recent memo was strongly criticised and characterised as a gag by the mass media and that it had tried to put a ‘sling’ on journalism. This memo, among other things, precisely aimed to prevent and stamp out these deplorable deeds, which today sees the publication of the voluntary statement, a fact which does not serve the purpose of justice at all,” police said.
The police statement raised questions about where the leak had come from despite claims by Politis that it had been in possession of the statement days before the defence received copies of the evidence.
The police also said it had not escaped their notice that the on January 30 the defence had tried to secure copies of the evidence against their clients during the remand renewal procedure for Skordelli and Krasopoulis, a request which the court turned down on January 31.
According to police sources it was highly unlikely the leak had come from them. In fact the same source said it was strange that the publication had come a day after the defence team had received copies of the prosecution’s evidence.
On Friday the defence received hefty black files containing details of the case against their clients as part of the procedure to determine whether there was a sufficient case to refer the accused to direct trial in the Assize Court. The defence was given until today to review the evidence before taking a stand on the issue. In the meantime the three accused were ordered into custody at Nicosia’s Central Prisons.
So had Skordelli, Krasopoulis, and Gregoriou benefitted from the leak? Well according to an experienced criminal defence lawyer, not necessarily.
“If declared an unfair trial this does not mean the accused have been acquitted. It simply means the case cannot be tried and so it goes untried. In other words the three accused could still be guilty and must go on living with this rumour of guilt hanging over them,” he said. “So an acquittal is not really to the benefit of the accused either.”
Hadjicostis, CEO of the family-controlled DIAS media group and Sigma TV, was gunned down on the night of January 11 just outside his Engomi home.
He was killed instantly by two shots – one to the chest and one to the back – most likely with a short-barrelled shotgun. Police said the specific type of ammunition used in the murder weapon – 12 gauge rounds – is illegal in Cyprus.
According to witness testimonies, the first shot was fired at point-blank range while Hadjicostis was standing outside his car, speaking on the mobile phone. The victim slumped to the ground, at which point the shooter fired again.
