The trial of suspended Paphos mayor Phedonas Phedonos, who stands accused of rape and domestic abuse, will be heard behind closed doors, the Paphos criminal court decided on Thursday.

Court chief justice Lia Markou announced the decision at Thursday’s hearing, and said that in line with the ruling, the publication of any of the minutes of the forthcoming proceedings is prohibited.

It was also decided that following Thursday’s hearing, the next five hearings will be held on consecutive days between July 27 and July 31.

Markou explained that were the hearings not to be held behind closed doors, there would be a “visible risk that, in addition to the violation of [the alleged victim’s] privacy, the quality of her testimony will be affected due to the fear and anxiety associated with the possible stigmatisation of her”.

She also said that the complainant must “testify without fear” in court, and that for this reason, it was necessary for the hearing to be held behind closed doors.

Prosecution lawyer Irini Savva had argued that the “nature of the offences” makes the case exceptional, and that the testimony which is to be presented to the court “contains elements of the complainant’s personal data and details from her personal life”.

She added that in holding the forthcoming hearings behind closed doors, the complainant’s private life “will be protected”.

The defence, however, argued that the complainant “is known in Paphos by third parties since [she] herself told dozens of witnesses that she was raped”, and that as such, “she cannot now request protection when she herself is making the case public”.

Defence lawyers also argued that the “manner in which the complaint was filed” should necessitate a public trial, “especially when public figures are involved”.

Phedonos pleaded not guilty to all charges last month, having been charged with five offences in total, including rape, indecent assault, actual bodily harm, and administering a substance capable of intoxicating or neutralising another person’s resistance, among other offences.

Allegations of domestic abuse against Phedonos surfaced after social media personality Ioanna Photiou, better known by her alias Annie Alexui, claimed to hold documents from the related to admissions of Phedonos’ wife Louiza Andreou to the Nicosia general hospital in 2017, which stated that she had been “beaten” by Phedonos.

Andreou has vehemently denied all accusations made against her husband, writing in a post on social media that “my family is being subjected to a coordinated attack”.

“Everyone who really knows me, in my workplace, in our extended family, our friends, know that I am not a victim and that I have no fear. I have lived harmoniously with my husband for 20 years. I assure you that he is a wonderful man, decent and honest, and I am truly proud of him and the battles he is fighting,” she wrote.

The allegations of rape surfaced in February, when Paphos-based land developer Theodoros Aristodemou, of Aristo Developers, accused him of committing the crime around ten years ago, before giving a statement to the police.

Aristodemou has had various run-ins with Phedonos and the Paphos municipality in recent years, having been referred for trial in 2014 alongside his wife and two associates over alleged fraudulent demarcation of 177 plots of land within municipal boundaries.

It had been alleged at the time that thousands of square metres of land which had originally been designated as green space were reassigned to a development company, but the four were cleared by the Paphos criminal court the following year.

An appeal was filed against the acquittal, but the verdict was upheld by the supreme court in 2019, which found that while the paperwork contained irregularities, there had been “no deliberate attempt to secure planning permission under false pretences” on the part of Aristodemou, his wife, or his associates.

Shortly after the accusations were made, Phedonos was suspended from his mayoral post by Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou. Since being suspended, he has been paid a third of his mayoral salary by the state.

His suspension will end either when legal proceedings regarding the allegations levelled against them have concluded. If he then returns to his duties, he will be entitled to the full amount of the salaries he had lost during his suspension.

Since February, Angelos Onisiforou has been working as acting Paphos mayor.