Three police experts testified on Thursday in the retrial of Giorgos Christodoulou, known as "Zavrantonas", in connection with the 15kg of cocaine found in a military bag in 2019.
The hearing before the Criminal Court focused on mobile phones seized from key prosecution witness Yiannis Andreou ("Maronas") and CCTV material obtained from his residence.
Questions over CCTV timing
A police officer from the Criminal Investigation Department adopted his report concerning footage from the surveillance system at Andreou's home.
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Christos Poutziouris highlighted what he described as gaps in the evidence, arguing that the footage does not establish the precise times of arrival and departure from the Nicosia residence.
Dispute over phone data
A second witness, a police officer from the Police IT Department, testified about examinations carried out on mobile phones belonging to Andreou.
The officer explained the procedure used to create forensic copies of the contents of the devices, saying the extracted data is read-only and cannot be altered.
The witness told the court that 10 mobile phones seized from Andreou, who has already been convicted in connection with the same case, were examined.
During questioning by the defence, the officer was asked why the raw files from the phones had not been retained.
He replied that the files were not kept because of their large size.
Poutziouris argued that this undermined his client's right to a fair trial, since an independent expert instructed by the defence cannot verify the original data that was not preserved.
Previous conviction overturned
Christodoulou was originally convicted by the Nicosia Permanent Criminal Court on 12 December 2022 of possession and possession with intent to supply a Class A controlled drug, namely 15kg and 16.4g of cocaine.
The offences were committed on 16 January 2019 and he was sentenced to 22 years' imprisonment.
On 11 May 2026, the Court of Appeal overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial.
The Criminal Court subsequently decided that the case should be heard as a priority and, where necessary, would hold afternoon sittings to expedite proceedings.
Next hearing
The court ordered that Christodoulou remain in custody until the next hearing, scheduled for 11 September at 10.30am.
It was also indicated that an additional witness may be called if agreement is reached between the prosecution and defence.
The retrial is approaching its final stages. Defence witnesses are expected to testify in upcoming hearings before final submissions are made by both sides.
