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A Limassol criminal court held two defendants in contempt on Tuesday during a hearing in a drug case, after one of them got up and lashed out verbally saying he was being set up.
Four defendants appeared in a Limassol courtroom on Tuesday in connection with a case where police busted a meth lab last year.
According to Philenews, the defense team objected to the prosecutor’s request to enter private phone data as evidence citing constitutional issues, with the objection being overruled by the presiding judge who called on the state to present their next witness.
As the next prosecution witness was being called to take the stand, one of the defendants got up from his seat and said he wanted to leave the courtroom because he was being framed.
Then another defendant got up and lashed out at the state prosecutor, accusing her of inducing witnesses to lie under oath
“You’re the government’s dog, you do whatever they tell you,” the defendant reportedly told the witness in broken Greek.
As police officers surrounded the defendant, he turned towards the bench.
“This is all your fault because you decided to let them show text messages in the courtroom,” he told the judges.
Then another defendant got up and addressed the state prosecutor, accusing her of inducing witnesses to lie under oath.
“You’re worthless, you are the one who tells witnesses what to say in court against us,” the defendant said.
The bench ordered the two defendants to exit the courtroom, with the lawyer who had raised the objection earlier going on to accuse the prosecutor of misleading the court regarding phone records of the defendants.
Then the prosecutor objected with the presiding judge siding with the woman, who had also asked that the male defense attorney be reprimanded for his comments.
After the judge sustained her objection in whole, the defense lawyer proceeded to make a statement.
“I do not accept to be reprimanded by people who falsely mislead a court of law,” he said as he exited the room.
A fellow defense attorney told the bench that his colleague had a headache and managed to secure a recess, with the presiding judge rescheduling the hearing for the following week.
