Police send Cyprus faulty-airbag investigation file to legal service

Nicosia, Cyprus. Police confirmed on Wednesday that they had submitted to the legal service their investigation file concerning the history of defective airbags in Cyprus and how they entered the country. Attorney-general George Savvides is expected to review the findings before deciding whether prosecutions should follow.

Investigation reaches legal service

The submission follows, by 15 months, an ad hoc committee report recommending criminal proceedings against three people. Savvides received that report in July last year and subsequently forwarded it to police and the cabinet.

After examining the police file, Savvides may also ask investigators to carry out additional inquiries.

The committee was chaired by former Supreme Court judge Michalakis Christodoulou. Its other members were Michael Vorkas, chairman of the bar association, and Theodosios Hadjimichail from the audit office.

Committee findings on ministerial responsibility

The report attributed substantial responsibility for defective airbags reaching the Cypriot market to the four ministers who held the transport portfolio during the period from 2013 to 2023.

It named Efthymios Flourentzou, Marios Demetriades, Vasiliki Anastasiadou and Yiannis Karousos, who is now Famagusta district governor.

According to the committee, none had accepted or acknowledged responsibility, although their positions warranted doing so. The report said they had instead relied on the explanation that they had not been informed about either the Takata airbag problem or the road transport department’s handling of it.

The report outlined the position that, had the ministers known, they would have raised and addressed the matter, pointing to their handling of other issues while in office. The committee rejected that reasoning.

It argued that responsibility could attach to a minister without their direct, personal involvement in a particular matter. It also warned that a failure by those at the highest political and social levels to accept responsibility for their actions helped entrench impunity, both generally and politically.

The committee held the former ministers responsible for the road transport department’s failure to act, its negligence and its indifference.

Vafeades’ involvement in 2023

The report separately addressed the role of Alexis Vafeades, who succeeded Karousos and held the transport portfolio from 2023 until August this year.

It said Vafeades began working to resolve the issue in 2023 after receiving information from the father of Kyriakos Oxinos. Oxinos was killed that year in an incident involving a defective airbag.