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- Ελληνικά
The Legal Service consciously chooses to take a parsimonious approach to positioning, public debate and/or public confrontation. This position is time-honored and is guided solely by the mission, role and limitations imposed on it by the Constitution and the law. It does so in the full knowledge that this position leaves room for a variety of comments and criticisms.
However, the Legal Service is also obliged to take a public position in relation to the announcement of the Independent Anti-Corruption Authority (the Authority), dated 15 May 2024, regarding a complaint that the Authority has referred for examination to the Legal Service, to the extent, of course, it is permitted to do so and given that the communication between the Legal Service and the Authority on this matter, as well as the content of the communication, is classified as confidential and as such will continue to be handled by the Legal Service.
With regard to the public debate provoked by the Authority's communication regarding the constitutional requirement to respect the right to silence, it is our position that any differing legal opinion as to its application is wrongly taken as a field for populist interpretations and various comments, whether in good faith or bad faith, which, aphoristically, result in misinterpretation of the law and jurisprudence.
The Legal Service maintains the correctness of its position, based on a full study of the record, taking into account that, unequivocally, the complainant was a suspect in the case at hand.
However, we must say that we are surprised and concerned, firstly, by the content of the Authority's notice and, secondly, by the timing chosen to issue it, given that the Authority has been aware of this decision of the Legal Service since 26 February 2024 even though the clarification letter cycle ended on 28 March 2024, and thirdly, the fragmentary reference made in the intercepted correspondence, the full extent of which, out of respect for the Security Rules for Classified Information, Documents and Material and Related Matters Act of 2021 (L. 84(I)/2021), we cannot disclose and clarify publicly.
The Legal Service considers the Authority as a natural ally in the fight against corruption since the work of the Authority is ancillary to the exercise of the constitutional powers of the Attorney General.
Our intention, which we have already expressed orally to the Transparency Commissioner, is to invite the members of the Authority to a meeting as soon as possible to discuss, inter alia, the issues of the different legal or factual treatment that exists, which - we stress - relates only to the facts and procedures followed by the Authority in this particular case, and not to the whole of the cases as, in our view, wrongly presented in the Authority's communication.
In any case, as a Legal Service we will continue to perform our duty within the framework of legality, always applying the principles of law and drawing guidance from the rich case law.
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Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
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