The Supreme Court has definitively closed the inquest into Thanasis Nicolaou‘s death, rejecting a request to appeal its previous ruling that had upheld the original inquest findings.
The court’s full bench had ruled on December 11, 2024, that while the coroner had made a legal error in excluding pathologist Panicos Stavrianos from testifying, the inquest findings should stand in the public interest, given the case’s 20-year duration.
Stavrianos, through his lawyer Andriana Klaidis, sought permission to appeal the December ruling. The court, after hearing arguments last Monday, rejected the appeal request today, finding no grounds to overturn its previous decision.
While the inquest findings remain valid, the Supreme Court noted they cannot be used in any criminal or disciplinary proceedings.
Attention now turns to criminal investigators who must determine whether Nicolaou’s death resulted from criminal activity and if there are grounds for prosecution regarding both the death and the investigation’s handling.
The criminal investigators’ report is expected by March 7.
In rejecting the appeal, the Supreme Court stated that “the case was tried by the Full Bench, which examined all issues raised and issued a final decision on December 18, 2024. The correctness of the Full Bench’s decision cannot be questioned, nor can the Bench itself be required to review its own decision through appeal”.
