The journalists who tirelessly fight for the oppressed, what did they do for the injustice against journalist Evdokia Loizou? I ask this question first because I feel the need to apologize to her too.
We all knew about her ordeal, but few were those who helped her, certainly not as much as we should have. We let her struggle alone for 17 years to find justice. And that’s a shame that can’t be washed away.
But when will CyBC apologize to her? Not just because they caused her “professional illness” which destroyed her life, but because for so many years she tried to prove that Evdokia doesn’t have any illness, that she is pretending. As if their employee decided to fake illness to swindle money from them.
Now, even if belatedly, the court’s decision has come, clarifying that Evdokia Loizou suffered great pain and hardship for a long time, and the remnants continue to afflict her, affecting her quality of life, her personality, her activities, her career, and her daily life, imposing restrictions and prohibitions on her even 17 years later.
Despite the clear court ruling, a state organization, CyBC, has been denying since 2012 the decision of the competent Department of Labor Inspection, also state-owned, that her illness is work-related and thus CyBC is liable under European laws and directives.
In court, they tried to prove that the Department of Labor Inspection’s decision was incorrect. So many years tormenting a person! It seems unbelievable to me. Why? To leave her at the mercy of fate instead of taking responsibility, instead of taking care of her as they should, instead of standing by her.
Instead of seeing the person and rushing to help, they were obsessively protecting their state machine and themselves, not wanting to expose themselves. Imagine what a private company could do in such a case when this behavior comes from the state!
Especially when, according to the court’s decision, one of the two former directors of the Department of Labor Inspection who testified in court stated that from 2000 to 2012, 43 inspections were conducted by the department, the most inspections ever conducted on a premises where employees worked.
He even said that CyBC’s building was sick and emphasized that it was one of the worst building facilities he had ever seen. They were aware of the dangerous working conditions. But instead of acknowledging their fault, they went to court with a doctor as a witness to testify that there was no risk factor linking Evdokia’s workspace to her illness.
There were reports from Medical Boards, reports from specialist doctors who monitored her in Britain, reports from the Ministry of Labor, yet CyBC’s management and the governments behaved with absolute indifference towards one of their employees.
They literally tormented her for 13 years in courtrooms. Even the Prosecutor was used to abruptly stop without any explanation a criminal case against CyBC regarding Eudokia’s illness.
Now that the court has decided that the state’s behavior through CyBC was criminal, we hope they will apologize and pay compensation, perhaps alleviating somewhat the financial ruin suffered by her and her family, trying to seek medical help.
We hope they won’t subject her to new torments by appealing to the Supreme Court, requiring her to wait for years again for final vindication.
At the very least, they should pay compensation and leave her alone. They owe explanations to the taxpayers they burden. Because it’s the taxpayers who will bear the burden of compensations exceeding one million, as decided by the court, because of the reckless and inhumane behavior of some state bureaucrats.
P.S. Congratulations to her lawyer Michalis Vorkas, who fought alongside her and supported her until the end against a despicable establishment that resembled a mafia.
In the photos, on the left, Evdokia before her ordeal began. On the right, today, among all her other problems, she is constantly forced to protect her eyes from intense light.
