The Appeal Court has overturned the conviction of Giorgos Christodoulou Zavrantonas, who was sentenced in December 2022 to twenty‑two years in prison for possession and trafficking of a consignment of fifteen kilograms of cocaine seized in Lakatamia in 2019.
According to Reporter, the court accepted defence arguments that there had been a miscarriage of justice, focusing primarily on the change in the composition of the Assize Court during the trial proceedings.
A key prosecution witness in the case was one of two individuals already convicted in connection with the same drug shipment. After receiving a sixteen‑year prison sentence, the witness was placed in the Drug Law Enforcement Unit’s witness protection programme in order to testify against Zavrantonas. The Assize Court had accepted the witness’s testimony as credible but ultimately convicted Zavrantonas only on two charges of drug possession, acquitting him of conspiracy and drug supply charges.
It also emerged that the prosecution witness was later granted suspension of his sentence by the Law Office, meaning he did not serve the prison term imposed on him, despite earlier assurances during the first‑instance proceedings that no such measure was contemplated.
Zavrantonas had been arrested in the north and handed over to the authorities of the Republic. After the case was filed, the defence raised objections over the legality of his handover, describing it as an abduction by the occupation authorities.
An interim ruling was subsequently issued by the Assize Court. The Appeal Court held that this ruling bore the seal of the natural judge and that the case should therefore not have proceeded before a differently constituted Assize Court.
On this basis, the Appeal Court ordered that the case be retried. The prosecution must file the case afresh within fifteen days.
