Doria Varoshiotou, the now former judge who was relieved of her duties by the supreme judicial council earlier this month, will not return to work ahead of the conclusion of her appeal against her dismissal, following a supreme constitutional court ruling on Thursday.

The court decided to not suspend the supreme judicial council’s decision to terminate her probation in the profession and thus allow her to return to work as a judge until a decision is made regarding her appeal, finding that doing so would “prejudge the outcome” of her appeal.

Her appeal will be heard on August 25.

The supreme judicial council decided to not offer Varoshiotou a permanent position within the judiciary following the conclusion of a two-year probationary period.

She was the only one of 11 judges under probation whose position was discontinued, with seven being offered permanent appointments and three being given further probation.

Varoshiotou had last year ruled that conscript Thanasis Nicolaou, who died in 2005, had been strangled to death,19 years after his death had been ruled a suicide and following a long campaign to have that ruling overturned by his mother Andriana Nicolaou.

That ruling prompted a wave of appeals from former state pathologist Panicos Stavrianos.

While those appeals were unsuccessful, the Supreme Court found in February that Varoshiotou had made a “legal error” in not allowing Stavrianos to testify during the case.

Despite this, the Supreme Court also found that it would “not serve any purpose” to annul Varoshiotou’s decision “for reasons of public interest and justice”.

President Nikos Christodoulides had at the beginning of the month demanded “public explanations” over the reasons for Varoshiotou’s dismissal.

“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.

Meanwhile, Andriana Nicolaou described the decision to relieve Varoshiotou of her duties as “unacceptable” describing her as “a worthy and incorruptible judge”.