Police, legal service to review court warrant procedures

Authorities on Tuesday decided to set up a joint working group made up of state attorneys and police officers to review procedures of requesting court warrants after the supreme court cancelled several in separate cases.

A Legal Service statement said the decision was made during a meeting between deputy attorney-general Savvas Angelides and police chief Stelios Papatheodorou.

The aim is to review the process followed by police officers when requesting warrants before court.

The committee will draft guidelines for investigators to follow when applying in a bid to avoid mistakes or omissions that caused the cancellation of several warrants by the supreme court.

The most recent case concerned cancellation of a search warrant issued by the Larnaca district court for the home of a teacher suspected of being the administrator of a parody account on Twitter that was reported by Justice Minister Emily Yiolitis as offensive.

According to Phileleftheros, before that, the court last week cancelled an arrest warrant issued against a doctor accused of indecent assault.

There is also the cancellation of an arrest warrant concerning a foreign national linked with an investigation into a spy van and that of a court order for disclosure of bank transactions as part of a probe into cash transfers during a ban in 2013.