State pathologist Panicos Stavrianos testified in court on Tuesday and presented material backing his theory that conscript Thanasis Nicolaou had died after falling from a height in 2005.
On December 18, the Supreme Court had rejected an appeal lodged by Stavrianos against a Limassol district court ruling that Thanasis Nicolaou had been strangled to death in 2005.
Speaking to philenews, Stavrianos’ lawyer Andriana Klaides said her client had appeared before two criminal investigators but had not been questioned and had not been considered a suspect.
She said Stavrianos testified and presented his material.
Sources said the material presented was intended to be delivered to the investigator into the death of Thanasis Nicolaou. Stavrianos had not been allowed to deliver the material, which was deemed by the Supreme Court to be a legal error.
Stavrianos had found at the time that Nicolaou had committed suicide, and appealed the Limassol court’s later ruling in May 2024 that the guardsman had been strangled on the basis that he was an interested party in the case and should have had the right to participate in court proceedings.
However, the Supreme Court found that while the Limassol court did make a “legal error” in not allowing Stavrianos to testify, it would “not serve any purpose” to annul the court’s decision “for reasons of public interest and justice”.
The Limassol district court had ruled in May 2024 that Nicolaou had been strangled to death, almost 19 years after Stavrianos’ ruling.
It had found that “Thanasis Nicolaou, whose body was found under the Alassa bridge, died on September 29, 2005, as a result of strangulation due to criminal activity.”
Thanasis Nicolaou’s mother Andriana Nicolaou had for nearly two decades campaigned to have Stavrianos’ ruling overturned, remaining adamant that her son had not committed suicide.
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