Evidence from defendants' computers and phones excluded from trial

Source: 24news.com.cy

Following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the court order to search Christakis Tziovanis and Antonis Antoniou's telecommunications data, an important development has occurred in the Al Jazeera case.

The Supreme Court ruled that evidence taken from the computers and mobile phones of Christakis Tziovanis, a former AKEL MP, and Antonis Antoniou, a senior executive of the Tziovanis group, cannot be used during the trial.

"The trial court ignored the crucial work of investigating and forming its own opinion as to whether all three (3) legal requirements were met. In this case, the Court did not act in accordance with the statute, did not consider whether the three conditions of the statute were met, and acted entirely mechanically," the Supreme Court's decision states, among other things.

Furthermore, the first hearing has been scheduled for October 26 at 9:00 a.m.

The accused include former Speaker of the Parliament Dimitris Syllouris, former AKEL MP Christakis Tziovanis, lawyer Andreas Pittatzis, and Antonis Antoniou, a senior executive of the Tziovanis Group.

The indictment includes five counts of conspiracy to defraud the Republic and influencing a public official in violation of the law ratifying the Council of Europe Convention on the Criminalization of Corruption.

It should be noted that the Court imposed conditions to ensure the defendants' attendance at the trial. Bail was set at fifty thousand euros with a reliable guarantor for defendants Sylouris, Tziovanis, and Antoniou, and thirty thousand euros with a reliable guarantor for Mr. Pittatzis.

It should be noted that this is a criminal case involving both the contentious "Al Jazeera" report and events surrounding the exceptional naturalization of foreign investors and businessmen based on the findings of the Nicolatou Commission.