Limassol District Court has ordered the prosecution to furnish all witness materials to the defence teams in the protracted Thanasis Nicolaou case, a directive that emerged amidst significant contention over disclosure delays. Defence lawyers have declared their intention to leverage this procedural hiccup as the cornerstone of their pre-trial challenges, signalling a complex legal battle ahead. The ruling came after defence counsel articulated grave concerns regarding their ability to adequately prepare for the proceedings, citing the sheer volume of evidence and what they perceive as a deliberate obfuscation by the prosecution.
The case, which centres on allegations of a concerted effort to conceal the true circumstances surrounding the death of conscript Thanasis Nicolaou in 2005, has seen five former police and state officials charged with a litany of offences. These include conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, neglect of official duty, perjury, and destruction of evidence. The defence's frustration is palpable, with lawyers asserting that the prolonged delay in receiving the extensive evidentiary material, reportedly exceeding 5,500 pages, has severely hampered their efforts to construct a robust defence for their clients, who they claim have been subjected to unfair public scrutiny.
Further complicating matters is the defence’s planned objection to the participation of Savvas Matsas as a prosecutor. Matsas, who previously served as an independent criminal investigator in the case before being removed from that role by Attorney-General George Savvides, now finds himself on the opposing side. The defence has flagged this transition, along with Matsas' prior actions involving media disclosures, as grounds for challenging his current prosecutorial capacity. They argue that his dual, and arguably conflicting, involvement in the case raises serious questions about impartiality.
In response to the defence's persistent appeals, the Limassol District Court mandated that the entirety of the prosecution's evidence be provided. While digital copies are to be supplied to the defence lawyers, one of the defendants, Christakis Kapiliotis, former head of the Lania police station, will receive printed documentation. A ten-day deadline has been imposed for this handover, a move underscoring the court's acknowledgement of the case's age and the gravity of the accusations. The court has scheduled the next hearing for February 19, a date that will likely see these procedural disputes take centre stage. The defence team’s strategy to challenge the proceedings from their inception suggests a protracted legal manoeuvre designed to scrutinise every facet of the prosecution's case, from evidence disclosure to the very composition of the prosecution team.