Attorney-general Costas Clerides on Friday called for an urgent review of a recently approved amendment to parole criteria, as a fresh batch of high-profile inmates convicted on corruption charges were granted early release.
Clerides issued a written statement suggesting the parole board had interfered with the authority of the judiciary, as reports emerged that two former mayors of Paphos and two other former state officials who were jailed for corruption were released.
The AG said the parole board had been set up to grant conditional release to convicts under certain circumstances.
“Instead, based on the law as it stands, inmates convicted of serious criminal offences, including corruption, are released en masse, before some can even complete half the sentence imposed by the court,” Clerides said.
He suggested that as things are, the power exercised by the parole board “seems to interfere with the authority of the independent judiciary, which imposes the appropriate sentences after considering all the factors relating to the offence.”
The AG added that the practice got rid of the deterrence factor, giving society the wrong message.
Clerides said the state must take corrective measures as a matter of urgency.
His statement came as news emerged that the parole board had granted early release to former Paphos mayors Savvas Vergas and Phidias Sarikas as well as the former head of the town’s sewerage board, Eftihios Malikkides and former Akel municipal councillor Vasos Vasilliou.
Vergas had been jailed in February 2015 for six years after he was found guilty of receiving kickbacks for sewerage projects. He got an additional two years later on relating to kickbacks from a waste management firm. Malikkides was also convicted for six years along with Vergas and got an additional 15 months for receiving bribes in 2017.
Sarikas was jailed for four years in May 2017 along with Vassiliou, who also got four years, for corruption in connection with the Paphos’ sewerage system. In April this year, the Supreme Court reduced Sarikas’ and Vassilious’ sentences by one year.
Two other former and one sitting councillors were also jailed during the same trial.
Sarikas went on to be elected MP with Edek in 2006. Before his indictment in 2015, he held the chairmanship of the House ethics committee.
Their early release was made possible by the wholesale pardon — a traditional practice — granted by president Nicos Anastasiades –commuting all the convicts’ sentences by one-quarter — upon his re-election, but also by a change in parole criteria unanimously passed by parliament in May.
The change, which provides that the parole board can take into account the reduction in the sentence that has been granted or is expected to be granted due to good behaviour.
Under the previous provisions, prisoners could only apply for parole after completing half the sentence imposed by a court.
The first to take advantage of the change was deputy attorney-general Rikkos Erotokritou who was released in August after 17 months into a 3.5-year jail sentence for corruption.
He was followed by Stathis Kittis, the former chairman of state telecoms company CyTA who had been jailed for eight years for corruption early in January 2015. In 2017 Kittis was placed under house arrest for health reasons. He was released last week.
In the wake of criticism sparked by news of Erotokritou’s early release, Akel’s Aristos Damianou had issued a statement placing the blame squarely on the parole board.
“If anyone should be censured, it is the parole board on how and when it exercised its discretion to release Rikkos Erotokritou,” he said.
Likewise, Diko had said that the germane issue is “how the parole board’s decisions can be checked, whether there exist objective criteria and if these are applied uniformly.”
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