New suspension for police trial

LEGAL proceedings to charge eight police officers who were ordered to face retrial by the Supreme Court for their role in the beating of two students in December 2005 were suspended again yesterday.
The eight, who include Andreas Efstathiou, Haris Haritou, Andreas Panayi, Georgios Pavlou, George Kililis, Costas Toumbas, Iordanis Iordanous and Christianna Antoniou, appeared relaxed and at ease minutes before the Nicosia Assize Court convened.
However the proceedings were postponed until the morning of May 21 after the team of defence lawyers said they wanted to discuss a number of substantial legal issues with the state prosecutor.
“There are a lot of issues that need to be discussed and we will need to have a meeting with the Attorney-general to make specific suggestions,” the court heard.
The lawyers said that the discussions could result in either avoiding a trial altogether or to reduce the duration of a trial considerably.
“Either way we believe a postponement will benefit the whole procedure,” the court heard.
State prosecutor Panicos Kekkos said he had no objection to the request.
“I have spoken to some of the defence lawyers and they’ve told me some suggestions but we [the legal services] haven’t decided yet. We want to see the issues in their entirety which would concern us as the trial gets underway. We want the [defence’s] positions put to us officially so we can review them,” said Kekkos.
On December 20, 2205 Marcos Papageorgiou and Yiannis Nicolaou were repeatedly beaten by five officers including four MMAD (Mobile Rapid Reaction Unit) officers and one female constable after they were pulled over for a routine ID check. The youths were 27 at the time of their assault.
The eight officers to be retried face varying charges from torture, illegal handling of civilians, causing grievous bodily harm, attack that led to grievous bodily harm, neglecting to stop an offence from taking place, improper use of authority, and common assault.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.