Nicosia, Cyprus. A court hearing on Friday focused on whether statements attributed to Stylianos Constantinou, the 15-year-old boy who died by suicide in 2019, can be admitted as evidence in the trial of 11 suspects over the circumstances surrounding his death. The court is due to decide the matter on Friday, June 26.
Arguments over admissibility
A written statement by former nursery school teacher Konstantina Papachristodoulou was submitted to the court by prosecution lawyer Eleni Constantinou. In it, Papachristodoulou said Constantinou had told her he was being abused at home.
Eleni Constantinou asked the court to reject an objection to the statement that had been filed at a previous hearing. She argued that existing statute law on the admission of evidence and domestic violence allows such evidence to be admitted.
She said the law on domestic violence permits the submission and admission of evidence that would ordinarily be considered hearsay. She also argued that the statements attributed to Constantinou would be admissible under the principle of “res gestae”, which provides exemptions to hearsay rules on the basis that a person speaking in the immediate aftermath of a shocking event would not have the time or capacity to fabricate a lie.
Defence position
The lawyer representing Constantinou’s father argued that previous Supreme Court rulings have found that testimony from a deceased person cannot be admissible.
Constantinou’s father faces charges related to alleged physical and psychological violence, as well as common assault and “cruel and inhumane treatment”.
Background to the case
Constantinou was found dead at his family farm on September 5, 2019.
His death drew national attention, and the government at the time authorised ombudswoman Maria Stylianou Lottides to investigate the matter in September that year.
In her report, she found that both the police and the social welfare services department had failed to recognise the psychological violence directed at Constantinou by his father, as well as a pattern of violent behaviour towards his mother.
