With today’s decision, the appellate judicial body rejected the request for a suspended sentence for 82-year-old grandfather Chrysanthos, and upheld the first-instance decision of the Limassol Permanent Criminal Court, imposing an immediate prison sentence of two and a half years.
The fate of the 82-year-old now rests in the hands of the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, who are called upon to decide whether to initiate the relevant procedures provided for in the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus for granting clemency.
It is recalled that the President of the Republic decided to exercise his right to presidential pardon for purely humanitarian reasons and called on the General and Assistant General Prosecutors to give the green light for the release process of the elderly man.
The decision was not unanimous, as the two judges agreed with the convicting decision of the Criminal Court and dismissed the request for the suspension of the sentence, while the decision of the Court of Appeal President, Charalambos Charalambous, stated that the suspended sentence was justified due to its particularity and the nature of the events.
The 82-year-old was convicted on March 6, 2024, after admitting guilt for shooting the would-be thief who entered his property.
It should be noted that throughout this period, the elderly man had to be hospitalized three times at the Limassol General Hospital due to health problems he faced. In the appeal brief filed by the lawyer of the 82-year-old, Maria Neophytou, it was argued that the first-instance court wrongly did not grant a suspensive character to the 2 ½ year prison sentence imposed on the elderly man.
It was further emphasized that, in the case of the 82-year-old, the court’s discretionary power should have been exercised in favor of suspension.
