Nicosia, Cyprus. The Nicosia district court on Wednesday was asked to decide whether statements attributed to 14-year-old Stylianos Constantinou can be admitted as evidence in the criminal trial concerning his death by suicide. The issue arose after the completion of the cross-examination of criminal investigator Andreas Andreou and at the start of testimony by Konstantina Papachristodoulou, who was Stylianos’ kindergarten teacher during the 2008-2009 school year.
Hearsay evidence challenge
The matter concerns the admissibility of hearsay evidence. After answering preliminary questions, Papachristodoulou was asked by prosecutor Eleni Constantinou to have her written statement submitted as an exhibit.
While the defence did not object to the statement as a whole, it challenged specific passages containing references made by Stylianos himself. Defence lawyers argued that those references amounted to hearsay because they originated from a person who has died and therefore cannot appear before the court to be cross-examined.
They said that if the rest of the statement is admitted, those particular references should be removed.
Scope of the trial
The case concerns the suicide of Stylianos in September 2019. The court is examining whether responsibility lay both within the family and with state services.
Proceedings have focused on whether there were instances of abuse or neglect within the family, whether the boy’s mother was aware of incidents and failed to report them, and whether Social Welfare Services officers adequately assessed and handled the information available to them.
Next court steps
Following the completion of the defence submissions, the court granted the prosecution time to present its arguments. The prosecution is expected to rely on both Cypriot case law and judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.
The prosecution’s address has been scheduled for Friday at 11am, while Thursday’s hearing has been cancelled.
Earlier, criminal investigator Andreas Andreou completed his cross-examination by lawyer Marios Spyrou, who represents the 11th defendant, a Social Welfare Services officer.