A lawyer who was facing charges of granting passports by suspect means to foreign nationals without due diligence, and who also appeared in an Al Jazeera investigative documentary along with former House Speaker Dimitris Syllouris, has been cleared of all charges as heard in court today, with Syllouris making an appearance for the first time.
Andreas Pittatzis was not included in a second list of charged individuals, resubmitted to a hearing today, with the prosecution confirming this new development today.
The court was adjourned until November 14th , when attorneys for the accused will resubmit pre-trial requests.
Following his disentanglement from the case, Pittatzis will now be defending Andonis Andoniou, one of three individuals remaining on the charges docket, including former House Speaker Syllouris and former MP Christakis Tziovannis.
On a Facebook post, accompanied by a photo of his family, Pittatzis said he felt vindicated, following the vulgar manner, as he said, in which the Al Jazeera video in question was edited, ultimately leading to his implication in the case.
‘The Turkish tanks, driven by Qatar’s Al Jazeera rolled over Cyprus and bombed it, winning a hybrid war with a disgustingly edited video. This fake video created a sense of guilt and illegality’, Pittatzis said.
The lawyer claimed that those who knew the truth chose to stay silent and not mention that a complaint had been made to the electronic crime unit, a year prior to the video publication and after he had met with the Al Jazeera ‘swindlers’. They knew, he added, that the video was falsely edited and the reality was completely different.
‘I waet through torment’, he added on his Facebook post, noting that his office had only processed 10 naturalisations out of a total of 7,200.
