Without having the testimonial material from the three-thousand-page report in front of us, Nikos Anastasiades yesterday tried to dismantle the seven cases in which the Independent Authority Against Corruption believes he may have committed criminal offences.
When it was pointed out that he had presented no evidence to counter the suspicions of potential abuse of power, he, visibly irritated, demanded references to specific instances.
He knew, however, that beyond what is recorded in the Authority’s sixty-seven-page announcement, we could not refer to anything else, since we do not have access to the testimony on which the Inspectors relied to reach their findings. In this way, the former President sidestepped the core of our commentary, while simultaneously wagging his finger at us for failing to cite particular incidents.
The bottom line, however, remains. The Inspectors documented cases in which abuse of power or the crime of trading in influence may have occurred. The evidence underpinning these findings is not public, and the former President exploited that gap to freely construct his own narrative.
EM
