The attorney for one of the defendants in the ‘golden passports’ trial told the court on Tuesday that his client should be acquitted of all charges, while accusing prosecutors of playing fast and loose with legal procedures.

Giorgos Papaioannou wrapped up his closing arguments on behalf of his client, defendant Christakis Giovani.

Giovani, an ex-MP and businessman, and former House president Demetris Syllouris face charges of influence peddling and conspiracy to defraud, relating to the naturalisation of foreign nationals under the now-defunct citizenship-via-investment scheme.

In his closing remarks Giovani’s attorney spent a great deal of time attacking the prosecution’s case that Giovani had committed any wrongdoing in relation to the naturalisation of Nikolay Gornovskiy, the former CEO of Russian multinational energy corporation Gazprom.

Despite not meeting certain criteria under the naturalisation scheme, Gornovskiy had got the Cypriot passport after investing in real estate here. The investment was made via the Giovani Group, real estate developers. Defendant Giovani was the founder of the company and had served as its CEO for many years.

But Papaioannou insisted his client’s involvement was peripheral and incidental.

He insisted that Giovani had in many instances acted on the advice of lawyer Andreas Pittadjis.

Pittadjis had initially been included on the charge sheet, but the indictments against him were subsequently dropped.

Papaioannou asserted that Pittadjis had played “a starring role” in the process facilitating the granting of Cypriot citizenship to the Russian investor.

Pittadjis was Gornovskiy’s attorney. He also acted as legal consultant to Giovani.

Further, it was Pittadjis who urged Giovani to sign the reservation agreement relating to Gornovskiy’s real estate purchase.

A reservation agreement is a preliminary contract in property sales, especially new builds, where a buyer pays a fee to reserve a property for a set time, ensuring the seller takes it off the market while the buyer conducts due diligence and final sales contracts are drawn up.

According to the defence attorney, Pittadjis himself had drafted the reservation agreement, plus managed Gornovskiy’s account at Hellenic Bank, and filed the naturalisation application on Gornovskiy’s behalf.

The lawyer said he was not attributing any “questionable conduct” to Pittadjis. However, given Pittadjis’ extensive role in the affair, this raised questions as to why the prosecution was focusing on Giovani.

Papaioannou spoke of “inexplicable and selective prosecution”.

He said prosecutors never accounted for why they dropped the charges against Pittadjis – be it during the discovery stage of the trial or at any time subsequently.

“The absence of both the provider [meaning Pittadjis] and of the investor [Gornovskiy] creates a lopsided image of the case, and as a result Christakis Giovani is being asked to defend the legality of actions taken on the advice of his legal consultant.”

The attorney also stated that the prosecution’s litigation in court took the case in a different direction to that of the initial indictments.

And he submitted to the court that it should consider a mistrial.

The court will reconvene on Wednesday to hear the lead prosecutor’s response to Papaioannou.

On Wednesday also, the judge will set a date for delivering its ruling.

Hearings in the courtroom began in late 2024. The trial proper got underway in January 2025.

Back in October 2020 the Al Jazeera news network had aired an almost hour-long expose of the affair, prompting Syllouris and Giovani to resign.

In the documentary, undercover journalists posed as proxies for a fictitious Chinese businessman with a criminal record, aiming to secure him Cypriot citizenship.

Syllouris, Giovani and others were shown offering to help the man in his quest for citizenship despite his (supposed) criminal record.