Ioannides alleges effort to deflect responsibility for 2011 Mari explosion

Nicosia, Cyprus. Deputy Migration Minister Nicholas Ioannides has accused unnamed circles of seeking to shift responsibility for the 2011 Mari explosion away from the government of former president Demetris Christofias.

Ioannides, whose father Admiral Andreas Ioannides was among the 13 people killed, said relatives of the victims were monitoring what he described as efforts to deflect responsibility and “canonise” former defence minister Costas Papacostas.

Social media statement

Writing on social media on Thursday, Ioannides said there was a “systematic effort” to move responsibility away from the Christofias government.

“As relatives of the fallen, we are closely monitoring these immoral actions and will return with announcements,” he said.

Explosion and inquiry findings

The blast occurred at the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base on July 11, 2011. It killed 13 people, including six firefighters and senior military officers, and caused extensive damage to the nearby Vasilikos power station.

The explosion followed the storage for more than two years at the naval base of 98 containers of seized military material. The containers had been confiscated from the Monchegorsk, a vessel carrying military material from Iran to Syria.

Ioannides referred to the independent inquiry led by Polys Polyviou, which examined the circumstances surrounding the explosion.

The Polyviou report, published in 2011, assigned “very serious” institutional and personal responsibility to then defence minister Papacostas and foreign minister Markos Kyprianou. It placed the “greatest responsibility” on Christofias as president and head of government.

“It was the decisions and policy of president Christofias that led to the cargo remaining in Cyprus for a long time, under unacceptable storage conditions,” the report stated.