CSE legal aid bill approved

The Cabinet, under the chairmanship of President Tassos Papadopoulos approved a bill on providing legal aid to investors affected during the stock market fiasco 1999-2000, during its regular session on April 13, 2005.

Minister of Finance Makis Keravnos tabled the bill before the House. The main provisions of the legal aid bill is to help private investors, whose income does not exceed CYP 18.000 annually to sue for damages sustained during the stock market fiasco 1999 until end of 2001.

Another restriction of the bill is that investors may only sue for losses sustained in the range of CYP 2000 to a maximum of CYP 50.000. Applications should be made to a three-member scrutiny committee, made up of one representative each from the auditors, lawyers and the Finance Ministry.

The investor first needs to prove that his/her annual income does not exceed CYP 18.000 by presenting past income tax filings, after which the committee will decide if the case meets the criteria of the bill.

The provision of legal aid was one of the preelection pledges by President Papadopoulos.

Meanwhile, the government announced that it has appointed five temporary lawyers to help in the stock market fiasco investigations and to speed up the process of cases pending before the authorities.

According to reports, the public prosecutor is currently working on 227 cases involving transactions made during the closed period and 10 cases involving possible price manipulation.