Nicosia, Cyprus. The legal service has rejected allegations that police-chief Themistos Arnaoutis and other officers avoided prosecution in the Stylianou case for reasons of public interest. It said the decision was based solely on insufficient evidence to establish criminal offences.
Legal service statement
In a public statement issued on Friday, the legal service described the claims as “baseless, incorrect and unfounded” after court revelations that independent criminal investigators recommended prosecutions against 15 police officers, including Arnaoutis, over alleged failures in handling domestic violence complaints before the suicide of 14-year-old Stylianos Constantinou.
The legal service said members of the police and social services “were not prosecuted because the legal officers who studied and evaluated the findings considered, with full justification based on case law, that there is insufficient evidence to establish offences against these persons.”
Public interest not considered
The legal service said the issue of public interest “was not even raised for evaluation.”
“Procedurally, in order for the issue of not prosecuting for reasons of public interest to be examined, the establishment of the commission of an offence must first be satisfied,” the statement said.
“In the present case, the first stage was not satisfied.”
Court testimony and investigators’ recommendations
The intervention followed testimony before Nicosia district court that independent investigators Andreas Andreou and Modestos Poyiadjis submitted recommendations in December 2020 for criminal prosecutions against multiple officers connected to handling complaints made by Stylianos’ mother between 2007 and 2013.
Those complaints included allegations of domestic violence, threats and assaults involving Stylianos’ father.
Court testimony earlier this week said many complaints were recorded by police but later closed without full investigation, despite domestic violence procedures requiring officers to proceed even where complainants declined to cooperate.
Andreou told the court investigators had made recommendations for prosecutions involving 15 officers in total, but the attorney-general’s office proceeded against only one police sergeant.
What do you think should be the standard for determining whether evidence is sufficient to pursue criminal prosecutions in such cases?