Cypriot Attorney General not to prosecute journalists in senior attorney's stolen emails case

NICOSIA, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Cypriot Attorney General Costas Clerides has decided not to prosecute a number of journalists involved in the publication of stolen emails about six months ago, a statement by the Legal Service said on Tuesday.

The emails were stolen from the private account of the most senior attorney at the Legal Service, Eleni Loizidou, and were originally published by Russian sites, causing embarrassment for Cyprus and diplomatic tension internationally, as they showed her offering private advice to Russian state prosecutors on sensitive cases she handled.

Among them was an application in Cypriot courts to counter an effort by investor Bill Browder to block investigations in Cyprus by Russian officials into his dealings in Russian businesses that prompted a fraud action against him.

Browder claims he is being persecuted by Russia for political reasons as a result of his campaign related to the Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison in 2009.

Publication of the emails caused accusations against Russia of trying to exert influence over EU countries and criticism against Cyprus of being an agent of Russia.

The private emails of Eleni Loizidou, who was second in the Legal Service hierarchy, were published by the Greek Cypriot newspaper Politis (Citizen).

The Attorney General had ordered the police to take depositions from several of the newspaper's reporters about the origin of the emails, causing a strong reaction by Cypriot journalists, their union and international journalists' organizations, which deplored the action as a crackdown of the freedom of the press.

The Legal Service said in its statement that the Attorney General decided it was not in the public interest to prosecute anyone.

It added that the case raised two kinds of public interest -- one was safeguarding personal communications and the other was the public's right to be informed about issues of public interest.

"Weighing the two...and after taking into account the relevant national and European case law, as well as more general legal principles, the attorney-general judged it would not serve the public interest if he launched a criminal prosecution," the statement said.

Loizidou is still suspended from her post and is under disciplinary investigation. Enditem