By Jean Christou
THE LAWYER for one of three jailed British soldiers yesterday argued against the admissibility of testimony allegedly revealing who dealt the fatal blow to Danish tour guide Louise Jensen.
But during an application to have the testimony of British detective Michael Flack accepted by the Supreme Court, Prosecutor Petros Clerides said the state believed it to be reliable and credible.
Flack, 53, was jailed last year with another Briton for burglary. He had claimed he was in Cyprus investigating pharmaceutical fraud.
While in prison he spent time with the three soldiers. Justin Fowler, 30, from Falmouth, Allan Ford, 29, from Birmingham and Geoffrey Pernell, 27 of Oldbury in the West Midlands were sentenced to life without remission in March 1996 for the savage killing of 23-year-old Jensen in 1994.
Their lawyers are basing their appeal on claims of illegal arrest, undue harshness of the sentences, and alleged mistakes made by criminal court judges.
They want the Supreme Court to overturn the decision of the lower courts, or to reduce the sentences.
Prosecutor Clerides said the new evidence from Flack would reinforce the guilt of the accused and must be accepted “in the interests of justice”.
Flack’s 18-page statement, which is not signed, was faxed to the law offices of Lefkos Clerides on March 31 this year.
“The testimony is reliable and credible, and I don’t see what personal interest this person would have in the case. I don’t see that he would have any vested interest,” Petros Clerides said.
Antonis Andreou, Pernell’s lawyer, said he and Tassos Katsikides, representing Ford, supported the prosecution’s application to have Flack’s testimony admitted.
Asked by the court how it would affect their clients, Pernell and Ford, Andreou said it would affect their sentences.
“It fundamentally changes the role of my client and Katsikides’ client,” Andreou said.
He said the courts which convicted the three did not have all the details of that happened that night and had drawn “certain conclusions”.
Jensen was snatched in September 1994 outside an Ayia Napa petrol station after being knocked off a bike driven by her Cypriot boyfriend.
She was bundled into a car and taken to a remote spot where she was stripped and sexually assaulted before being beaten to death with a spade and buried in a shallow grave by the side of the road.
“The issue here is who hit the victim with the spade. It appears one of the applicants confesses he dealt the fatal blow to the victim. If the court accepts this then there may be an issue of acquittal,” Andreou added.
But Fowler’s lawyer Christos Pourgourides said the issue “is not at all clear”.
Citing precedents in British law, he argued against introducing fresh evidence after trial, and also questioned Flack’s reliability.
He said Flack had given no statements to anyone in authority regarding the case.
“When he was released (from prison) he made masses of statements to the British papers and radio,” Pourgourides said, referring to articles in the tabloids late last year.
“But from November 1997 to March 1998 he did not do anything to serve justice or help the courts. It was just a publicity seeking stunt.”
Pourgourides said that being an ex-policeman, Flack should have done things differently. “If he had sound evidence he should not have given it to the papers,” he said. I would view this (Flack’s course of action) as contempt of court.”
He also referred to Flack’s criminal record and accused the Briton of seeking free publicity for his private detective business in the UK.
