The Nicosia District Court on Wednesday postponed the hearing of the case of football club Apoel’s owings to the social insurance and other funds.
The case hearing had been set over the club’s €2.3 million debt alleged to have been incurred through withholding contributions to state social insurance, redundancy, and Gesy (national healthcare) funds.
The club stands accused of deducting these amounts from employees’ paychecks without transferring the money to the government funds in question.
The case was initiated by the ministry of labour with Minister Yiannis Panayiotou naming the club on Tuesday, and stating it was being taken to court for the amount incurred during 2020-2022 but that, in fact, Apoel owes €4.35 million in total, if the period up to the present is taken into account.
The football club’s lawyer Panos Panayiotou at the start of Wednesday’s hearing asked the court for additional time to prepare his client’s response.
He said the club had requested a meeting with the social insurance services adding that the settlement of three cases was in progress.
The prosecution did not object to the defence’s request for additional time and the presiding judge set the new date for the case for March 4 at 8.30am
Panayiotou also requested that it be recorded in the minutes that the case had “taken on an unexplained scope”, following public statements issued by the labour ministry.
He pointed to the fact that the indictment on approximately half of the defendants is pending, and said that state officials ought to refrain from making public statements during ongoing legal proceedings. Presumption of innocence until guilt is proven is legally sacrosanct, he said.
Apoel President Prodromos Petrides and club executives were present at the court.
Apoel had earlier reacted with fury to the minister’s public naming of the club, and accused him of trying to “make a career” though scapegoating.
“It is unheard of that a state official, a minister no less, should publicly refer to court cases that have not even begun, and cite amounts which are not even accurate,” Apoel said on Tuesday.
The club defended its actions saying it had carried out meetings with all the relevant agencies and had prepared long term proposals for debt settlement.
The minister, for his part, responded that the law applies equally to all said “no one can shirk their responsibilities.”
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