PRESIDENT Tassos Papadopoulos yesterday was on the receiving end of heavy criticism from the opposition for the way he handled the case of his party’s MEP Marios Matsakis who allegedly sought £10,000 to help acquit a police officer involved in a manslaughter case.
The decision by Attorney-general Solon Nikitas on Tuesday to start procedures to lift Matsakis’ immunity prompted charges of a cover-up from the opposition as well as renewed calls for DIKO deputy Matsakis to resign.
In a written statement, DISY suggested that Papadopoulos bore heavy political responsibilities because he knew about the case since April 23 but had not done anything to prevent all the negative repercussions, which stigmatise the country’s political life and expose it as inept in the eyes of the European Union.
“While knowing about the case, the President of the Republic chose to hush it up effectively gave political coverage to Mr Matsakis to be a candidate in the Euro elections,” the statement said.
DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades went a step further, charging that the matter would have been hushed up if Politis newspaper had not revealed it.
“I doubt if anyone would have known or any measures would have been taken,” Anastassiades said.
The DISY chief said he did not know who got involved but he knew who had hushed up a “scandal of huge proportions, which is led to the European Parliament”.
“Why didn’t President Papadopoulos advise the specific deputy to avoid being exposed as candidate and avoid what we’ll certainly face if Mr Matsakis insists on entering the European Parliament?” Anastassiades said.
He also took a shot at those, including the President, who called him a traitor when he wrote a letter to the president of the European Parliament complaining about the conditions in the run up to the April 24 referendum.
The United Democrats adopted a similar line, suggesting that the main political responsibility belonged to Papadopoulos.
Party general secretary Costas Themistocleous charged that the President either underestimated the matter or wanted to cover it up.
He said Cyprus could not have had a worse start: the European Parliament, in its first session, discussing lifting the immunity of one of the six Cypriot MEPs.
Government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides played down the opposition’s concerns and rejected that it would create wider political consequences for the country.
The spokesman defended the President’s actions and described the opposition statements as particularly aggressive.
But even DIKO’s allies in the government yesterday showed Matsakis the way out.
EDEK vice chairman Sophoclis Sophocleous suggested that Matsakis should resign for the sake of his country.
“Matsakis knows better what to do,” he said.
He added: “I would have resigned to help the procedure and would not hide behind strict legal procedures.”
Sophocleous renewed his call to Matsakis to resign and stop barricading himself behind his parliamentary immunity.
DIKO vice chairman Nicos Cleanthous described the Attorney-general’s decision as a serious development, which would be examined by the party.
Cleanthous however added that DIKO’s plea towards Matsakis to take action that would assist the procedure was still on the table.
The vice chairman insisted that Matsakis should take his own actions because public feeling could be satisfied when sensitivity was exhibited by the affected person.
At the same time Matsakis’ lawyer and New Horizons deputy Christos Clerides, chose to play the patriotic card yesterday in defending his client.
In a written statement, Clerides alleged that his client was targeted due to his political positions, “especially in the Cyprus problem, but also in his capacity as expert witness” which often made him ‘undesirable to the authorities’.
Clerides suggested that Matsakis’ rights – innocent until proven guilty — had been violated for the past three weeks through the unprecedented public prosecution and his right to a fair trial has been irreparably damaged.
“A way is sought at this moment to acquit the police on illegal practices, illegal leaks of confidential documents, alleged illegal recordings and a way to rescue its authority and also its members who possibly committed criminal and disciplinary offences,” Clerides said.
