Family’s lawyer to testify as witness in Thanasis Nicolaou case

Savvas Matsas, the lawyer of the family of conscript Thanasis Nicolaou, who was killed in 2005, is to withdraw from his role as a prosecutor in the trial of five people regarding an alleged coverup regarding the circumstances surrounding his death, so as to appear as a witness.

He announced his decision in Thursday’s hearing of the trial, with it having initially been planned that the day’s hearing would be used to hear objections to his role as a prosecutor, given the fact that he had previously served as an independent criminal investigator on the case.

With Matsas having voluntarily withdrawn, however, such proceedings were needless.

He explained that Christos Clerides’ law firm will now take over the prosecution and said he had taken the decision because the criminal investigator alongside whom he had worked, Antonis Alexopoulos, does not wish to testify, as he is a candidate to become a judge on the maritime court.

Then, he said that there was a second reason for his decision, but that he did not wish to disclose it.

At this point, Alexandros Clerides, of Christos Clerides’ law firm, requested a new postponement to the case, with the defence lawyers objecting and saying that they had arrived at Thursday’s hearing ready to make their pre-trial objections, and that these were not affected by Matsas’ withdrawal from the case.

However, the court acquiesced to the prosecution’s request, setting the next hearing for March 13, and stating that all evidence must be handed over by the prosecution to the defence by March 9, while also warning that no further postponements would be granted.

Matsas had been removed from his role as independent criminal investigator by attorney-general George Savvides, who said he had taken the decision because Matsas revealed the details of his findings to the media.

The five defendants in the case are former state pathologist Panicos Stavrianos, former Limassol police chief Angelos Iatropolos, former Limassol police crime detection unit chief Nicos Sophocleous. and former head of rural police Christakis Nathanael, and former head of the police station in the Limassol district village of Lania, Christakis Kapiliotis.

Almost 40 charges have been filed against the five, most of which have been filed against Stavrianos, and include charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, neglect of official duty, issuing a false certificate, perjury, destruction of evidence, and interference with judicial proceedings.

The five stand accused of covering up that Nicolaou had not committed suicide, as Stavrianos had initially ruled, but had instead been murdered.

The filing of private came comes after the legal service had announced in June that it intended to file no criminal charges with regard to the alleged coverup of Nicolaou’s death following the completion of a report into Nicolaou’s death and the circumstances surrounding of its aftermath written by lawyer Thanasis Athanasiou and retired Greek police lieutenant Lambros Pappas in 2024.

The legal service had written in a letter to Nicolaou’s family that Pappas and Athanasiou “did not reveal any new facts capable of overturning the legal reasoning of our decision” not to file charges beforehand.

“There is no trace of testimony about [Stavrianos’] knowledge of there having been a murder or [his] intention to cover for the perpetrators in order to provide them with the opportunity to escape punishment.”