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[/B]Session of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, on "The Law on the Legal Service of the Republic of 2023"
The autonomy of the Legal Service of the Republic, on which the Ministry of Finance submitted a relevant bill to the Parliament, was discussed today by the Attorney General of the Republic Mr. George Savvidis, during a session of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs. The meeting of the Committee was also attended by the Assistant Attorney General of the Republic Mr. Savvas Angelides.
After the meeting of the Committee, the Attorney General made statements to media officials and answered questions regarding current affairs. The full text of the questions is as follows:
"Today we discussed the bill concerning the autonomy of the Legal Service. We explained the importance that we attach to this bill, which is a very important bill because it achieves the long sought-after independence of the Legal Service, an issue that was raised during the time of the late Michalakis Triantaphyllides and then very strongly by my predecessor, Mr. Kostas Clerides. It is a bill which essentially makes the Legal Service independent of the Public Service Commission and establishes its autonomy. It is the result of many years of hard work, approved by the Cabinet of the previous Government and tabled in the House of Representatives by the present Government. I explained the reasons and especially the recommendations of international organizations - especially the EU Rule of Law and GRECO of the Council of Europe, where they clearly speak about the autonomy of the Legal Service - and presented the whole philosophy of the bill to the MPs. I consider that there was a positive response, and I expect and hope that it will soon become part of Cypriot legislation.
GRECO What does the Commission say on this matter? Should it go ahead?
I was given the opportunity during the discussion in the Commission precisely to 'dispel' a wrong impression that prevails and that is that the GRECO Commission asked for the Legal Service to be separated into a State Counsel and a Public Prosecutor. GRECO said no such thing, since, in the Fourth Evaluation Round, it was evaluating that part of the Legal Service that relates to public prosecutors. So that's who he was talking about and the reason he only talked about them is because he was only evaluating them. What GRECO said is that they should become independent and autonomous. Lest there be any doubt on this matter and to dispel these unsubstantiated positions, in GRECO's compliance assessment circles reference is made precisely to this particular bill on the autonomy of the Legal Service and that is all that remains. That is, the autonomy of the Legal Service is all that is outstanding to satisfy this recommendation. The other thing was to increase the salaries of the officials of the Legal Service to ensure their further independence, which has already been done and has already been noted by GRECO.
You talked about three or four myths circulating in society, for example, about the suspension of criminal prosecutions. Why did you feel the need to express this particularly strongly today? You expressed, for example, that you are not being congratulated by journalists, politicians, etc.
I have not asked anyone for congratulations, nor do I expect anyone to say 'well done' to me. In the course of the discussion we had today in the Commission, I felt it was right that I should clarify some things to help both those present and journalists understand things that unfortunately - because of our policy of not constantly going out in public and responding to the various things that are being levelled against us by various people - I feel have been misunderstood. So I feel that there is a perception that has been created which may suggest that some things - which are said by others against the Legal Service - are correct. So I felt that I needed to clarify some things to Members, because I think that the Legal Affairs Committee, which is mainly made up of lawyers, has the ability to understand certain legal issues more easily.
On the suspension of criminal prosecutions, you said within the Committee that the reason why such a decision was taken cannot be made public.
On the issue of suspension of criminal prosecution, I mentioned that it was one of the observations that GRECO had made, which GRECO had said that the Legal Service has to make a thorough analysis of why a case is suspended. That thorough analysis is done and is in the case files. In the case files there is a full record of the facts and reasons for not filing a case with the Court. We have also been told by GRECO that to the extent that we can, we may give some reasons to the Court if a case is pending. We do both of these things. And it has already been noted by GRECO that we are in compliance with that particular observation.
On the issue of the separation of the Legal Service into a legal adviser and a public prosecutor, how do you respond?
What I explained today when the issue was raised was that autonomy is a completely separate issue from any discussion on the issue of separation of powers. We are fully prepared as a Legal Service to discuss the issue when the time comes. We have done a very thorough study on the matter. There are some problems which will have to be discussed. What is paramount as we speak is firstly, that when the time comes to debate this issue, we will take a position and secondly, that the present Bill which deals with the autonomy of the Legal Service is unrelated to the issue of separation of powers and should be passed irrespective of whether there will be one or two institutions constituting the Legal Service. The reason is simple. The reason is that, even if we accept that there will be a separation, apart from the fact that it will take some time before any such action is implemented, both parts of the Legal Service should be independent and completely unaffected by any influence of any political leadership. During the discussion in the Committee, I also referred to the various things that are said publicly, namely, that the Attorney General as legal adviser to the State should be subject to suspension by the President of the day as if he were a minister, and I stated my position that such a thing, in my opinion-with my experience as Attorney General for almost three years-cannot be implemented. Because, in addition to criminal cases, the handling of civil cases - even the handling of State contracts or legal opinions requested by the State - if you do not ensure the absolute independence of the Attorney General, you will lose any check that legal advice is indeed independent and uninfluenced by anything. Imagine, an Attorney General having to handle a case involving hundreds of millions of dollars of claims against the State-which is the Attorney General's job-and taking instructions from someone or receiving instructions from a politician that, 'you know, this case is good to close it, settle it, or whatever.' That's unacceptable, because if the Attorney General knows that if he doesn't do that he's potentially going to be suspended, then he's going to have pressure, he's not going to be independent. That cannot happen."
In the finding that was done on Mr. Katsunoto, couldn't the conclusion be made public? That is, for the Legal Service to say that Mr. Emilianides said these things without the Legal Service providing names or any other information?
If you read our extensive statement on what Mr. Emilianides said, what we assessed and where we came to, you will see that we gave a full explanation of why we did not prosecute. I fully respect the fact that you say that you are not a lawyer, but I remind you that in their statements on this matter, well-known criminal lawyers have said that in this case a full explanation was given by the Attorney General. What there is a demand, unfortunately - and this is another point that I stressed in the House today - is the fact that some people are insisting that the product of the criminal investigation be the subject of public debate, and for transparency purposes, they say, it should be made known to the public. I stressed in the debate in committee, and I repeat, that criminal investigations and transparency do not go together. And they don't go together not because I want to keep secrets from the world or any Attorney General. In no country in the world can you publicly disclose what information you have about the criminal investigations that you are conducting. Imagine a witness who was approached by the police and gave a statement against a political figure, and in the end it was decided that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the case. If this thing went public, what would be the position of the witness? We will get to a point where people will now be afraid to give testimony to the police authorities because there will be a problem that it will be made public. It cannot be given.
You have advised positively on the possibility of unblocking more than 400 companies affected by the sanctions. Why is the matter not proceeding?
Whether or not the matter is proceeding is not something I can answer. My limited role was to give a legal opinion on a specific question that was put to me. I gave it, emphasising that, what the various bodies, such as the Registrar of Companies, choose to do is a predominantly political matter. It is now completely out of my jurisdiction.
On Friday, Mr. Attorney General, what do you expect?
I expect nothing more than what you expect, or if you like, I expect what you know. I do not know anything more.
The family of Vangelis Fragoulis requests a meeting with you to investigate the possibility of appointing criminal investigators in this case as well. What is your position?
I took note of the matter from yesterday's daily press and gave instructions to clarify the issue and send the case file to the Legal Service, so that we can evaluate what has happened so far and whether there is anything that should or should be done in the future."
(BL)
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