Akel presses for top law officials to quit after stepping aside from graft inquiry

Cyprus's main opposition party wants attorney-general George Savvides and his deputy Savvas Angelides to leave office, after both withdrew from handling an anti-corruption report linked to ex-president Nicos Anastasiades.

Akel presses for top law officials to quit after stepping aside from graft inquiry

Cyprus's main opposition force, Akel, is calling for the country's two most senior legal officers to leave their posts without delay. The demand follows attorney-general George Savvides and deputy Savvas Angelides announcing they will play no part in assessing a high-level corruption dossier.

Akel's general secretary, Stefanos Stefanou, issued a strongly-worded statement on Thursday. He described the anti-corruption body's conclusions as a defining moment for public institutions, cautioning that letting suspects off the hook would only deepen popular cynicism. Stefanou said both men ought to have departed already, arguing that staying on makes a fair procedure impossible.

The island's basic law places any prosecution flowing from such findings squarely within the attorney-general's domain. Akel slammed the notion that Savvides and Angelides could supervise anything touching Anastasiades, their alleged political backer, calling it a mockery of ordinary people's judgment.

The pair's withdrawal came just 24 hours earlier. Savvides pointed to his personal bond with the former head of state as the reason for bowing out, saying he wanted to safeguard unbiased conduct. Angelides made a matching pledge to keep his distance.

Stefanou also took aim at the governing Disy party and head of state Nikos Christodoulides. He charged Disy with still running cover for Anastasiades, and urged Christodoulides to admit the findings implicate "the administration in which he served prominently" and "the political godfather who put him in the presidential palace".

The graft authority's file now sits with the Republic's legal service. The executive says it intends to bring in an outside examiner to dig deeper into the evidence.

Source: Cyprus Mail

Source: Cyprus Mail