1st LD Writethru: Cyprus Supreme Court decides to dismiss Deputy Attorney General

Cyprus' Supreme Court sitting as a Judicial Council has decided to dismiss Deputy Attorney General Rikkos Erotokritou, court sources said on Thursday.

The Court accepted a request by the Attorney General to dismiss his deputy for conduct unbecoming.

This is the first time a public officer is dismissed from his post on the strength of a Supreme Court decision since the Republic of Cyprus was established.

The 13-member Judicial Council issued a unanimous decision saying that Erotokritou was guilty of conduct unbecoming.

Erotokritou had previously accused his boss, Attorney General Costas Clerides, of corruption and receiving bribes in April this year.

After delivering this hour-long decision, the Judicial Council directed that President Nicos Anastasiades, who is currently on a visit in New York, be informed of its decision. Anastasiades appointed Erotokritou to his post after winning a presidential election in February 2013. Under the Constitution, the president is the only authority to formally dismiss a state official after a Judicial Council Decision.

Erotokritou raised the charges against his boss in retaliation after the latter had instructed the police to prosecute the Deputy Attorney General, citing the findings of an independent criminal investigator that Erotokritou had behaved improperly in his official capacity.

Erotokritou publicly claimed that the Attorney General had received an unspecified bribe in return for unspecified favors -- a charge which he retracted at the hearing of his case.

Erotokritou is currently on a separate trial by an Assize Court on charges of corruption and receiving bribes in return for favors by a law office.

According to the charges resulting from the findings of the criminal investigator, Erotokritou, acting on the request of the Neokleous Law Office of Limassol, instigated criminal proceedings against two Russian brothers who were in litigation with their half-sister over an inheritance of their father amounting up to 300 million euros.

In return, the Law office, which was acting on behave of a now defunct bank, is alleged to have allowed Erotokritou to win a court case offsetting a bank loan of 450,000 euros against his deposits of about the same amount which had been seized in the 2013 resolution and recapitalization of the banking system.

The Neokleous Law office and two of its lawyers are also accused in the same case of bribing a public official.

Erotokritou said after the Judicial Council's decision was delivered that he has instructed his lawyers to lodge an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Hague.

"I have heard with great attention what has been said in the Court room. I'll closely examine the decision and then I'll instruct my legal advisers to appeal to the ECHR," said Erotokritou. Endit