The Supreme Judicial Council should make public a summary of some of the reasons for which Doria Varoshiotou was not given a permanent posting as judge, deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou said on Wednesday.

Speaking on CyBC’s Trito, Antoniou said the impression among public opinion was that Varoshiotou had been dismissed because she was a nuisance to the authorities.

This is extremely dangerous because the prevailing impression is that the judicial power in Cyprus rules a la carte, he said.

Antoniou added that this gave a platform to those wishing to invest in popularism.

President Nikos Christodoulides, Antoniou said, deemed it necessary to make a statement, given the social interest around the tragic case of Thanasis Nicolaou.

Public explanations of the reasons for dismissing judge Varoshiotou, who exposed claims of foul play in the long-running case of conscript Nicolaou who was found dead in 2005 should be forthcoming, Christodoulides said on Tuesday, one day after she was removed from her post.

“I fully understand the social reaction and the feeling created in society. It is extremely important that those who took this decision, and it was not the executive power, explain publicly why they took it. I repeat, I understand the reactions from society,” Christodoulides said.

Varoshiotou, whose name became linked with high-profile death inquiries, was dismissed on Monday by the Supreme Judicial Council, just days before marking two years on the bench.

The Judicial Council had reviewed the probation of 11 judges, appointing seven of them, allocating further probation for three and terminating one, Varoshiotou.

According to a report on Philenews, her dismissal follows fierce disputes with the president of the Limassol District Court over two separate inquests into accidental deaths.

But her dismissal also comes against the backdrop of her involvement in the explosive inquest into the death of 26-year-old national guardsman Nicolaou.

Varoshiotou came under intense public attention after refusing to let former state pathologist Panicos Stavrianos, who had originally ruled Nicolaou’s death as a suicide, testify in the case. A criminal investigation into the case after a long fight by his family and was completed last year ruled Nicolaou’s death was suspicious. In May 2024, she issued a coroner’s verdict overturning two decades of official narratives.

Meanwhile, Andriana Nicolaou, mother of Thanasis, deplored Varoshiotou’s dismissal, saying that the decision was “unacceptable”.

Andriana Nicolaou told the CyBC that Varoshiotou was “a worthy and incorruptible judge”.