Senior Cyprus lawyers found guilty of seven charges of bribery

A case against Assistant Attorney General Rikkos Erotokritou and Attorneys Andreas Kyprizoglou and Panayiotis Neocleous, and the law office of Andreas Neocleous has drawn to a close this week as a guilty verdict was passed by the Assize Court of Nicosia on March 2, 2016 in respect of a case which was filed on May 19, 2015

The lawyers face seven charges that have a seven year jail sentence attached to them, and, according to Greek news source SigmaLive, will appear in court on March 10 for continuation of the trial.

The court examined the possibility that there could be a preliminary case against the lawyers Andreas Kyprizoglou and Panayiotis Neocleous of the Andreas Neocleous law firm, who had been involved in a bribery case involving the Russian company Providencia Ltd.

Some of the lawyers concerned offer their services to FX brokerages.

Specifically, the case that the Attorney General, Costas Clerides, submitted against them includes charges for bribery of a public servant, receiving a bribe to show favouritism by a public official, bribery of similar officials, conspiring to change the course of justice, and conspiring to deceive.

Subsequent to this report by SigmaLive, a correction was made stating that the inadvertent reference to the article published by the news source on “prima facie case of guilt” for the accused instead of “prima facie case”, does not in any way mean that the purpose of our website was to discredit and/or to challenge as referred to in the article the persons and/or this report cannot be considered a breach of the Constitution’s regulated, presumption of innocence which they benefit from and which we respect absolutely.

SigmaLive has clarified that it in no way sought this reference to mislead and/or create to the public a false and damaging impression.

According to the company itself, the firm and its partners as well as Panayiotis Neocleous, are caught in the crossfire between the main protagonists, the Attorney General and his former deputy. All the evidence has now been given and a verdict is expected by the end of the year. Both Panayiotis and the firm are innocent of any wrongdoing, and the company is confident that both will be exonerated.

The subject of this report relates to a preliminary ruling the court made in March this year on a submission by our defence team that the prosecution had failed to make even a prima facie case, and an application for the charges to be dismissed without the defence being required to present its evidence.

The court decided that there was a case to answer, and that the trial should proceed. As a result of a misunderstanding of the legal position and a mistranslation from Greek to English, SigmaLive misreported this interim decision on procedural matters as a guilty verdict. Sigmalive has apologised and corrected its report and issued a statement with the title “Necessary correction for the case of Rikkos Erotokritou”.