Govt aims to ‘shake off cloud of doubt’ after video storm

The government aims to “shake off this cloud of doubt” which has engulfed it in the aftermath of the publishing of a video last week which alleged campaign finance lawbreaking on the part of President Nikos Christodoulides and his associates was widely shared on social media, deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou said on Monday.

“The essence of things is to convince people that these things which were said in the video do not concern the government. Our effort is to shake off this cloud of doubt, the shadow which exists, that a network of bribery or financing which is reprehensible has been set up,” he told CyBC radio.

He added that the government will be “happy … to the extent that we can overturn this image”.

At the same time, he said, “we never doubted the existence of real dialogues”, that the people filmed in the video were saying what they were recorded as having said, but that “this video is presented in a way which creates a believable image”.

“I claim that there are real dialogues, authentic material, which, in combination with distorted sound and image, creates this video which we have seen. This is our claim,” he said.

He added that as such, the government’s “great effort” is for the public to “see the essence and not he image”.

“Who did it? Why did they do it? When did they do it? These are the elements which will be revealed by the investigation,” he said, with those implicated in the video having reported it to the police.

He then reiterated that there are “real dialogues and conversations in the video”, and that “the way in which they were secured is something which does not concern us at this time”.

“It is an element of the investigation, I mean, whether they were entrapped, or anything else. We want to try in a structured, correct manner, honestly and transparency, to disentangle everything which emerges as a big picture and as a narrative from this video,” he said. 

He was asked to comment on the involvement of former energy minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis and Christodoulides’ chief of staff Charalambos Charalambous’ involvement in the video, with Akel having called for the latter to be relieved of his duties.

“I am not here to answer for Lakkotrypis. I represent the government. The government wants to attract investment. He came into contact with Charalambous. He told him that there was interest from overseas to invest in the energy sector – an investment of €150 million. Charalambous asked if Lakkotrypis knew them, if they were solvent and serious people, and a video call was made,” he said.

On this matter, he then said that “there are protocols, there are procedures for how you approach people”, and that “there are instructions on who you avoid talking to, there are foreign financial interests”, but that “possibly, in this case, Charalambous, because the information came from a former minister, may have underestimated these potential risks”.

“I do not want to answer on his behalf. It is an element of investigation. I believe that anyone could have suffered from this issue,” he said.

To this end, he said that he, too, could have been implicated in such a video, “because it was a conversation, not an official meeting, which should have been declared”.

“Let me say that on such and such a day, I saw such and such a person. I discussed investment with them, and so on. It is completely different. It was a conversation. We receive dozens of phone calls every day. The malice is inferred from the fact that these people disappeared,” he said.

The video first appeared on social media platform X last Thursday, having been shared by an account using the handle “EmilyTanalyst” and the name “Emily Thompson”.

It features Charalambous and Lakkotrypis appearing to explain how they used and intended to continue to use cash donations to circumvent election campaign finance laws.

Both men also appeared to say that donations to Christodoulides by oligarchs under threat of appearing on international sanctions list would lead to him defending and assisting them to avoid sanctions from the European Union.

Construction company Cyfield’s chief executive officer Giorgos Chrysochos, meanwhile, appeared to say that he pays €250,000 per year for his access to the government.

The social media account was registered in 2022 and according to information available on the platform is based in the United Kingdom.