The Supreme Court has suspended the appeal proceedings of a suspect, who filed an appeal against his detention until his trial began, two days after he escaped from his place of detention.
The Court of Appeal recently ruled that, in the circumstances, it could not accept to hear the appeal, the hearing of which was stayed, on the grounds that the appellant, by his escape, was "contemptuous of the very system of administration of justice".
According to the decision, the appellant was referred on 1 February for trial before the Paphos Criminal Court, which will sit on 2 March, and his detention was ordered until then.
The peculiarity of the case, it is added, lies in the fact that on 5 February appellant escaped and to date it has not been possible to locate and arrest him, but he registered an appeal, through his lawyer, two days later against the order for his detention.
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"The lawyer representing him indicated that he had received explicit instructions from the appellant before his escape, which he confirmed by telephone after his escape, to register and persist in advancing this appeal," the Court said.
Counsel, who informed the police and advised the appellant to surrender, told the Court that the subject matter of the appeal has not been extinguished despite the fact that the appellant is no longer a prisoner. "It was, he said, a manifestly erroneous detention decision," it added.
The Attorney General's representative was of the view that, given the escape, there was no longer a subject matter for trial and asked that the appeal be dismissed, it said.
According to the Court, subject matter may exist, but the issue is "whether appellant can advance his appeal and rely on the Court's assistance when he, by his action in escaping, has shown disrespect for the court order of his detention by effectively taking the law into his own hands."
Referring to case law, the Court said that the fundamental principle which emerges, and which is applicable to the circumstances of the present case, is that, "it is not acceptable for the Court to entertain a question raised by a person in contempt of the system of justice itself and, in the present case, through violent contempt of it".
It is up to the appellant to request that the appeal be set for hearing if the above impediment is removed, he said.
Source: CNA
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