Attorney General Costas Clerides has filed an application for dismissal at the Supreme Court to sack his Deputy, Rikkos Erotokritou, for “conduct unbecoming” and for his handling of criminal cases regarding the Value Added Tax office, under conditions that suggest conflict of interest.
Clerides is also seeking from the court, that acts as a Council in such cases when it is a full bench, that Erotokritou be suspended of his duties until the case is tried, set for first hearing on May 25.
Arguing the dismissal, the Attorney general said that the conduct, actions and statements by the Deputy Attorney General between April 14 and 23, as well as in the handling of criminal cases regarding VAT, were unbecoming that imply conflict of interest.
Representing the Attorney General are Yiorgos Triantafyllides, Christos Clerides and Achilleas Aimilianides.
The conclusion of a criminal investigation into the allegations, assigned to retired judge Panayiotis Kallis, and subsequently to two independent investigators, is expected within a few days, an official statement said. It carries a seven year sentence.
Erotokritou got into hot water when he got entangled in a case of alleged collusion with the law firm of Andreas Neocleous & Co. regarding a custody battle for Providencia, a multi-million Cyprus-based Russian trust and prosecution of the other plaintiffs in the case.
In exchange, it was widely reported that lawyers from Neocleous, acting on behalf of the administrator of now defunct Laiki Bank, allowed for a challenge by Erotokritou regarding a deposit-linked loan that had defaulted, to expire. The law firm later recanted and re-submitted the administrator’s action against Erotokritou.
However, the Deputy Attorney General said that it was his boss, Clerides, who had a conflict of interest and overturned the charges against the plaintiffs in the Russian trust case.
Erotokritou swiftly issued an announcement of his own, almost identical to the Attorney General’s statement earlier on Wednesday, saying that over the next few days he would apply to the Supreme Court to file for Costas Clerides’ dismissal for “conduct unbecoming”, once again using the constitutional provision for such cases.
