ATTORNEY-general (AG) Petros Clerides used his position to suspend prosecution for his son, Christodoulos Clerides, who was caught driving over the alcohol limit in a car that had not passed an MOT and for which he did not have up-to-date road tax.
But the AG has said he has done nothing wrong by helping out his son who was 32 at the time, because he would have done the same for someone else’s child.
Police filed a case against Christodoulos Clerides – a lawyer and the AG’s son – on June 11, 2011 and the AG informed Nicosia District Court in November 2011 that the Republic was suspending prosecution, Greek newspaper To Ethnos reported on Sunday.
Petros Clerides was asked to comment on the move on Sigma TV’s show 60 Minutes (60 Lepta) on Monday night, hours after he hung up on the Cyprus Mail when asked about the Greek report. Although he did not go into many details on the TV show, and his interviewer did not press him on the issue, Clerides did confirm the report was true.
His son Christodoulos Clerides did not respond to a number of requests to comment on Monday either.
“I acted in good conscience and with full transparency,” Clerides senior told Sigma. He said it would have been “very easy” for him to sweep the charges under the carpet and prevent them from reaching the court, but that instead he did everything officially.
“I don’t feel shame or anything else for what I’ve done. I’ve done it for many children and it would not be justifiable exempting my child simply because he was my own child,” Clerides said.
“So you are saying that it was exactly the opposite (of showing partiality). You handled the case in a way similar to handling many others,” Clerides’ interviewer said, helping the AG justify himself.
“In exactly the same way,” Clerides said... twice for emphasis. He continued: “…for an offence that is not even an offence today because it is regulated through on-the-spot fines… and would bear no consequences for my child even if (the case) had gone to court,” Clerides said. “These offences do not get registered on (someone’s criminal) record. You pay a small fine and that would be it”.
So suggestions that he got his son “or anyone else” off the hook from “heavy consequences” were “sensationalist” reports, Clerides said.
Parliament passed the law regulating drink driving offences through on-the-spot fines in June last year, over half a year after Clerides suspended prosecution on his son’s case.
The Cyprus Bar Association’s Code of Ethics states that “lawyers have an obligation to follow existing legislations”. The Bar Association’s disciplinary board is headed by the Attorney-general.
Sigma TV’s caption just referred to the AG’s statement of a “driving offence that would have borne no consequences” and the interviewer did not ask Clerides what consequences could have arisen for his son’s career if found guilty of a drink driving offence.
Article 113 of the constitution grants the Attorney-general or members of his office acting on his instructions the right to suspend any prosecution against anyone in Cyprus “exercisable at (the AG’s) discretion in the public interest”.
“So this is not something you handled behind closed doors without the knowledge of your subordinates,” Clerides’ interviewer said on Sigma. “No, I wrote the letter myself, it was registered, sent to the police and filed in records. There was nothing that showed that I tried to hide in this case.”
“So it was lawful and morally right?” the interviewer said.
“The AG decides alone on all issues,” Clerides said while the TV caption read, “I handled the case with full transparency”.
AG has the legal right to suspend prosecutions