Not only should the Attorney General appoint independent criminal prosecutors, but also an independent Prosecutor for the conclusion of the independent Anti-Corruption Authority, the lawyer, Achilleas Dimitriadis, told KYPE, citing a conflict of interest for the current Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General as members of the Cabinet of Ministers of the government during the term of the former President of the Republic, Nikos Anastasiadis. He also said that the independent Anti-Corruption Authority is “toothless” and should be given “teeth”.
Mr. Dimitriadis said that the head and members of the research team deserve congratulations for the titanic effort they have made all these years. He also stated that the conflict of interest does not only concern the heads of the NY but also their subordinates in the Service, clarifying that this does not reflect the qualifications or ability of the members of the NY to do their jobs. Mr. Dimitriadis noted that the report of the findings will go to the Attorney General who could for example – as he said – appoint the Australian Judge and the three Cypriots who prepared the report. “Indeed it would make sense, given that they are knowledgeable about the subject and know what to do.”
If the General Secretary does not do this, he added, the Council of Ministers under the President of the Republic could do it, that is, appoint the independent criminal investigators, noting that the Council of Ministers cannot appoint an independent Prosecutor.
Achilleas Dimitriadis justified the need to appoint an independent Prosecutor saying that it would be strange for independent investigators to conduct the investigation and give their results to the Attorney General. “There will be the problem again. So from now on they must not only appoint independent investigators, but also appoint an independent Prosecutor, who will direct the investigations and advise, since at the end of the day he is the one who will present the case to the Court” he said.
According to Mr. Dimitriadis, there is also a lesson to be learned from this investigation and this concerns that the independent Anti-Corruption Authority is “toothless” and we should give it “teeth”. The Parliament, he continued, must finally legislate in order to give the Authority such powers that “the work is not done twice, as it was done now. Once the interrogation will have to be done, once we will have to enter the costs and in half the time we will be done. But this needs legislation.”
And because he continued, all of this pertains to the powers of the Attorney General to preside over criminal investigations, to be the Prosecutor and to be the legal advisor of the state, the amendment of article 113 of the Constitution comes to the surface again as an urgent matter, for which – he said – 54 individual bills were filed to amend laws, but this Government, despite the pre-election commitment, did not file the bill to amend the Constitution. He explained that article 113 concerns the powers of the Attorney General and the amendment can be made by a simple majority in Parliament.
Mr. Dimitriadis also raised two questions, whether the President of the Anti-Corruption Authority was right not to make public the entire conclusion and whether he was right not to give this information before the Parliamentary elections. Regarding the first, he said, the President of the Authority expressed the opinion that he will not make it public and the matter is over. Mr. Dimitriadis himself believes that he should make it public. “But this is not tragic. It will be more tragic if we don’t put in independent criminal investigators and a Prosecutor” he added.
The second issue, he continued, whether it should be made public before the Parliamentary elections, since it was ready, is a matter “that deserves a political discussion now”, formulating the rhetorical and academic – as he said – question “if it had done so, would it have affected the outcome of the Parliamentary elections?”.
SOURCE: KYPE