The decision regarding dismissed judge Doria Varoshiotou’s appeal against her dismissal will be announced “as soon as possible”, supreme constitutional court chief justice Antonis Liatsos said on Wednesday, following the conclusion of both sides’ closing statements.

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

During the day’s hearing, her lawyer Achilleas Demetriades said that it is “unprecedented for a judge to be dismissed”.

“If there is no framework, then the process is not legal, and when something does not exist, it cannot be considered to be known in advance,” he said, before adding that the constitution “prohibits appointment on probation”, and that “the procedure followed does not enshrine the guarantees of independence and equality of judges”.

Polys Polyviou, representing the supreme judicial council, the body which dismissed Varoshiotou in the first place, said that she had “fully accepted the terms of her appointment, performing her duties and receiving all the benefits of her position without any protest for the duration of her probationary period”.

“Accepting the appointment on probation, without any reservations, renders any subsequent objections against the conditions which had been set unfounded,” he said.

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 in August 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”.