NICOSIA Criminal Court yesterday acquitted all the defendants in the trial for the 2005 Helios aviation disaster, spelling the end of legal proceedings here more than seven years after the crash which claimed the lives of 121 people.
The court dropped the charges as a matter of routine after the Attorney-general moved to suspend the prosecution of all five defendants.
The state prosecution cited “insurmountable difficulties” posed by a recent court decision in Greece.
Earlier this month a Greek court of appeals upheld a 10-year prison sentence for three airline executives found responsible for the accident, but gave them the option to buy-out their convictions for some €76,000 each.
The three, Helios’ managing director Demetris Pantazis, flight operations manager Giorgos Kikkides, and Bulgarian chief pilot Ianko Stoimenov, were found guilty of negligent manslaughter, a misdemeanour.
The Athens court acquitted a fourth defendant, a British engineer who had carried out the final checks on the aircraft before the fatal August 14 flight. He did not stand trial in Cyprus.
The decision in Greece was expected to complicate legal proceedings in Cyprus where the Supreme Court ordered a retrial after the Nicosia Criminal Court had acquitted the defendants, which also included Helios Airways as a legal entity and executive chairman at the time Andreas Drakos.
In court yesterday, the state prosecutor spoke of “insurmountable difficulties” to further pursuing the case against Pantazis, Kikkides and Stoimenov.
She cited the EU’s framework decision on the European arrest warrant, which has been incorporated into Cyprus law, as well as the legal principle of double jeopardy that forbids a defendant from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following a legitimate acquittal or conviction.
As a result of the Greek decision, Drakos was the only remaining natural person as defendant in Cyprus, in addition to Helios Airways as a legal entity. Drakos did not face charges in Greece.
And since Drakos was considered “more removed from the charges of negligence” as compared to the others, there was little point in continuing the trial, the prosecutor argued.
Still, it’s understood that the Greek court’s decision against Pantazis, Kikkides and Stoimenov is not yet irrevocable. In order for it to become legally irreversible, the three must appeal the decision with Greece’s Supreme Court, which will have the final say either way.
Alternatively, they could opt to drop the case by accepting their sentence there.
Raising a point of objection, George Papaioannou, defence attorney for Pantazis, said his client preferred to stand trial in Cyprus, given that the decision in Greece was not yet irrevocable.
His client was confident of being re-acquitted in Cypriot courts, which would clear his name once for all, he added.
But now, with the dismissal of the case, the public would never get to know the true causes behind the deadly air crash, Papaioannou said.
Helios and their lawyers have maintained throughout that there was not enough forensic evidence to pinpoint the precise cause of the August 2005 crash. As such, the airline executives could not be blamed for hiring (or for not sacking or not grounding) the two pilots, who according to the official accident report were primarily responsible.
The relatives of the crash victims, who for almost eight years have been seeking some measure of redress, voiced disgust at yesterday’s development.
“It seems the Attorney-general chose to hide behind the decision in Greece,” Nicolas Yiasoumis, a spokesman, told the Mail.
Having left the matter in the hands of the state, there was now little else the relatives could do, he said.