Erotokritou says he feels he has done nothing wrong

Former deputy attorney-general Rikkos Erotocritou on Thursday said that, to this day, he strongly feels he has done nothing wrong with regard to his handling of the Providencia case in 2013.

Erotocritou, who is on trial along with lawyers Andreas Kyprizoglou and Panayiotis Neocleous, as well as the Andreas Neocleous law firm, for allegedly colluding to launch criminal prosecutions against Russian nationals battling the Neocleous law firm over ownership of a Russian trust fund – Providencia – in return for arranging a court case Erotocritou had brought Laiki Bank to be concluded in his favour.

The four defendants went on trial after Attorney-general Costas Clerides following a criminal investigation into the Providencia incident, where Erotocritou had allegedly ordered the prosecutions against Clerides’ instructions, by retired judge Panayiotis Kallis, found evidence of the purported transaction.

Grilled by prosecution lawyer Elias Stefanou on Thursday, Erotocritou reiterated his strong belief that he had done “nothing wrong”, and blamed his ordeal on the strained personal relationship he had with Clerides.

The former deputy AG denied having tried to extract information from Clerides regarding the Kallis report before its findings were made public by the AG.

“He locked himself up in his office and further avoided any contact with me,” Erotocritou said.

“Nor was I allowed, based on our relationship up to that point, to talk to him, even in a friendly or collegiate manner. I was informed of the content of his news conference [in which he announced the findings of the Kallis report] when Mr Clerides walked out of his office on his way to the conference, and his secretary gave my secretary an envelope containing the speech he made to the press moments later.”

The calmest of men would find it hard to keep his composure, he added, noting that his earlier involvement in public life as a politician he was “in a position to understand when something was done in good faith and with no bad intention”.

“I realised he had one goal – to throw me out of the Legal Service,” he said.

Erotocritou defended his decisions with regard to the Providencia case by insisting that the criminal prosecutions were ordered on recommendation of police investigators.

However, he denied having any prior knowledge that Clerides was going to appoint a criminal investigator.

“I didn’t talk, or chat, with the attorney-general,” he said.

“He may have spoken with others, but not me.”

The former deputy AG complained about the lengthy cross-examination, noting that “you have me here for three days, accusing me even for the air I breathe”, but later had to retract his comments, asking Stefanou to “take them as a rhetorical statement”.

Returning to an October 2013 meeting with Clerides he had referred to in his statement, in which the AG had called him a donkey for entering his office without knocking, Erotocritou said it had caused a full-blown rift in their relationship.

Asked why he had made no mention of the incident either to Kallis or the Supreme Court, when the body was examining a request by Clerides for his sacking, Erotocritou said he had not thought of it.

Recalling his thoughts on the incident, Erotocritou said it frightened him because he realised the tension Clerides had let out.

“If that was the reaction of a confrontational personality, an extrovert, it would not be dangerous,” he said.

“But to see it from an introvert, that is a very dangerous thing.”