The findings of death investigator Doria Varoshiotou regarding the death of Thanasis Nicolaou overturned a twenty-year narrative of suicide.
She determined it was murder, particularly after accepting testimony from doctors who examined the 26-year-old National Guard member’s bones following exhumation requested by his grieving mother, Andriana Nicolaou.
Her findings were reviewed by the Supreme Court when forensic pathologist Panikos Stavrianos appealed to have them overturned. The Supreme Court decided not to annul the ruling, thereby accepting it as correct. However, Varoshiotou’s decision created significant problems within the justice system.
The government was forced to appoint independent criminal investigators (Papas and Athanassiou) who confirmed Varoshiotou’s findings regarding strangulation, as well as the previous findings of criminal investigators (Matsas and Alexopoulou). The official twenty-year narrative—maintained by governments, prosecutors, judges, police and others—collapsed spectacularly. This was due to Doria Varoshiotou’s decision.
Yet one month after her ruling, the judge was transferred from the criminal to the civil division. No other judges were transferred—only her. Even accepting this was coincidental (nothing is coincidental, naturally) or that decision-makers deemed it better for the public interest and owe no explanations to anyone, one cannot help but be troubled by the fact that this judge was never granted tenure by the Judicial Council. She served a two-year probationary period, and one day before its completion, she was informed her appointment was being terminated.
It appears she had demonstrated on multiple occasions that she would not compromise or become part of the system. This was evident even before her appointment. When she first applied to become a judge, her application was rejected.
However, she appealed to the Supreme Court against the decision. The Supreme Court ruled there was no procedure for challenging their decisions, but they were forced to establish a procedure allowing appeals against Judicial Council decisions.
Varoshiotou reapplied for appointment and was finally hired in 2023 but was not granted tenure. She challenged the Judicial Council and fought against it—if that means anything.
This was not all, however. She recently challenged the authority of the Limassol District Court president, who summoned her to his office and expressed disagreement with the manner of writing and conclusions of findings she issued in two death inquests.
One concerned a death resulting from a traffic accident, the other a death caused by falling from scaffolding during work. The District Court president asked her to change the findings. Varoshiotou refused and challenged his authority with legal and constitutional arguments.
It is clear she is not a judge who bows her head. She was troublesome for the system, which does not want troublemakers disrupting its tranquillity and undermining its wisdom and authority. We are not talking about a random person who happened to find themselves in this position. With a degree in Byzantine and Modern Greek Literature from the University of Cyprus, a second degree in Law from the University of Leicester, England, a postgraduate qualification in Business Administration with a dissertation graded with distinction, serving as a mediator in civil and commercial disputes, she worked in contract law, civil law (medical negligence cases, defamation, malicious prosecution, fraud, unfair competition, assault), human rights cases, cases filed with the European Court of Human Rights, and much more.
What matters, however, is that she challenged the system. She was troublesome. Particularly in a case where no one in the justice chain or state apparatus wanted their narrative disturbed—that Thanasis’s death was suicide.
“How can all this be explained? Is there someone who can explain to us what is happening?” Andriana Nicolaou asked yesterday when informed of developments regarding the judge.
We ask alongside her: Is there someone to explain what on earth is happening? “What dark forces behind the government rule us?”.
