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29th March 2024
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HomeNewsState to appeal O’Dwyer decision and sentence

State to appeal O’Dwyer decision and sentence

THE Attorney-general will appeal a court decision and the sentence handed down in the assault of a British national by a developer following a dispute over a property.

On Wednesday, a Paralimni court sentenced property developers, Christoforos Karayiannas, 55 and his son Marios, 35, to a 10-month jail term that was however suspended for two years for assaulting Conor O’Dwyer in 2008.

A third man involved in the incident, 31-year-old Charalambos Ttigis was fined €3,000.

The court found the trio guilty last month of assaulting O’Dwyer and causing actual bodily harm (ABH) – and not the more serious grievous bodily harm (GBH) count, the state had charged them with

State prosecutor Thanasis Papanicolaou told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the state will appeal. “I have been authorised by the Attorney-general to file an appeal for both the decision and the sentence,” Papanicolaou said. He added that this would be done in the next few days.

Papanicolaou stressed, that the fact that the plaintiff was British did not make any difference to the state.

Every person has rights in the Republic of Cyprus, whether they are Cypriots, foreigners, EU nationals or third country nationals,” he said. “The Attorney- general’s position is that nothing changes because he is British or any other nationality. Justice is for all.

The GBH charge carries a maximum of seven years in jail while ABH goes up to three years.

In her decision on October 27, Judge Evi Antoniou said O’Dwyer – when he testified during the trial – was “excessive in most points.

He was stressed, lost his temper, and through his testimony it became evident that the only thing he wanted was the punishment of the defendants,” the judge said. “This led him to numerous contradictions in his testimony.

During sentencing, the judge said she accepted the position that Christoforos and Marios Karayiannas had been repeatedly provoked by the plaintiff. “Recording most of the conversations the plaintiff had with defendant One without him knowing … publishing the conversations on the Internet, the claims of the plaintiff that defendants One and Two are liars and they mislead people, and publishing these claims as well as harassing” the defendants’ clients “cannot be ignored,” the judge said.

The plaintiff’s behaviour cannot be isolated from the way things went. He activated four spy cameras; one being a micro- camera hidden well in his jacket to peacefully measure, according to his claim, the pavement of the house he bought and to take pictures,” the judge said.

That provocation was taken into consideration when deciding whether to suspend the sentence, the judge said. It is believed that this particular point will be disputed by the prosecution in the appeal.

The legal precedent cited by the judge stated that provocation can be a mitigating factor in passing sentence but nowhere did it explicitly say that it can be used to suspend a sentence.

State to appeal O’Dwyer decision and sentence

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5 COMMENTS

  1. Andrew McC.

    I suspect that we’re all mentally exhausted by the shenanigans that are perpetrated by the so-called Cypriot (in)justice system. Hardly a day goes by when some form of engineered, legal outrage isn’t exposed or meted out to the average citizen, Cypriot or foreign.

    Smoke and mirrors? I suspect that you’re probably right and that we’re witnessing yet another ploy to prolong the agony of Conor O’Dwyer and cynically demonstrate to the world that the state’s doing something.
    I’d love to be mistaken but years of overt corruption and obfuscation have dulled our enthusiasm and faith in what was once a beautiful, humane and magical land…

  2. Is this the same Attorney General who is currently prosecuting Mr O’Dwyer over the content of his web site and who gives lawyers who have been sent to jail for repeated disqualified driving a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card after only a couple of days inside?

  3. Peters experience reminds me of days in Nigeria where as expats our employers supplied us with local drivers, as if we drove & were involved in any kind of accident, no matter whose fault it was, the expat would always be to blame before the court because had he not been there the accident would not have happened.

    You cannot argue with such elementary racist & ill founded logic.

    I despair at Peters comment and am glad it is now published for others to see and decide for themselves.
    Perhaps the authorities would care to look at the evidence again too and decide if an injustice has taken place.

  4. I never thought I would live to see something like this. Well done AG although I reserve my position in the hope that this is not just more smoke and mirrors.

  5. “Papanicolaou stressed, that the fact that the plaintiff was British did not make any difference to the state”.

    Why do I not believe that comment?

    I was a police officer for over 32yrs in the Met, when I gave evidence in a Paphos Court regarding a case of death by dangerous driving. My evidence conflicted with the two Paphos police officers, I could prove that the motor cycle (with no registration plates and its engine/chassis number removed) was doing a “wheelie” at speed, on a bend where there was a slight dip in the road, the rider had lost it, and gone onto the wrong side of the road and hit an on-coming SUV driven by an expat.

    The expat was convicted of the offence, and although I have given evidence in many such cases before British Courts, I was informed that. “The court did not consider me a reliable witness”

    You decide if being an expat makes a difference?

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