A total of seven people have been held responsible for the death of conscript Thanasis Nicolaou in 2005, according to reports on Saturday.

Newspaper Phileleftheros wrote that the report into the findings of an investigation carried out into Nicolaou’s death written by lawyer Thanasis Athanasiou and retired Greek police lieutenant Lambros Pappas had concluded both that Nicolaou died due to a criminal act, and that seven people bear responsibility.

Those seven people are, according to the newspaper, two military officials, four members of the police force, and former state pathologist Panicos Stavrianos.

Stavrianos had ruled in 2005 that Nicolaou, who was found dead under a bridge near the Limassol district village of Alassa, had committed suicide, while his mother Andriana Nicolaou had for nearly two decades campaigned to have Stavrianos’ ruling overturned.

This led to Nicolaou’s bones being exhumed and examined in 2020, with new information coming to light thereafter leading to the conclusion that his death was due to a criminal act and not a suicide.

Last year, the Limassol district court ruled that Nicolaou had been strangled to death, prompting President Nikos Christodoulides to appoint Athanasiou and Pappas to conduct a fresh investigation. They handed in their report on Wednesday.

Stavrianos claimed after the Limassol ruling that he had been wronged, appealing it at the Supreme Court on the basis that he had not been allowed to testify in the Limassol case.

The Supreme court rejected Stavrianos’ appeal, finding 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”.

After the ruling, Stavrianos said that “perhaps I am the only person whose rights are violated without any remedy”.

His final appeal at the supreme court ended without success in February, and his lawyers are now alleging that he was poorly treated during that hearing.

The Athanasiou-Pappas report was submitted to the government last week, with Andriana Nicolaou having initially requested that it not be sent to the attorney-general’s office. However, as Christodoulides explained, the report’s submission to the attorney-general’s office is a legally required procedure.

She said, however, that she did not expect much from the attorney-general’s office.

“The report will be studied by those who stood against us in court,” she said.

She added that she intends to proceed with private criminal prosecutions against those named in the report and potentially others not mentioned.

“My child was bullied by certain individuals and murdered because he saw them using drugs in the army. They cannot go unpunished,” she said.