Our View: Minister should not have bowed to pressure over Phedonos

Phedonas Phedonos was suspended from the post of Paphos mayor by decree of the interior minister, who was given the authority to axe mayors by the new local government law that was approved a few years ago. This law gives the interior minister, an unelected official, power to remove an elected official like a mayor from his post, as soon as he receives word from the police that the mayor is under investigation for an offence that carries a prison sentence of at least three years.

We know this is the law and that it was approved by the political parties, but giving the authority to an appointee to ban an elected official from office, on suspicion of wrongdoing, is a power usually associated with a totalitarian regime. The minister, Constantinos Ioannou, did not hesitate to use this power even though nothing had been proved against Phedonos, and the police have not yet decided to charge him. At present they are investigating the allegations, so why was Ioannou in such a rush to suspend him? Why did he not wait a few weeks for the investigations to be completed?

What is even more astonishing is that the minister based his decision on allegations made by third parties rather than Phedonos’ alleged victims. The allegations that he had beaten up his wife nine years were made by a woman with mental health issues, living in Moscow, who has 13 arrest warrants issued against her by Cyprus police for spreading fake news. She is not someone who can be described as a reliable witness by any stretch of the imagination.

Meanwhile police were also investigating allegations of rape. The allegations were made by Paphos developer Theodoros Aristodemou who claimed Phedonos had sexually assaulted a member of his family 10 years ago. Aristodemou had differences with Paphos municipality, for which he faced criminal charges, before he first made the rape allegations. He was subsequently acquitted, the supreme court upholding the decision that “no deliberate attempt had been made to secure planning permission under false pretences.” Why had Aristodemou waited 10 years to go to the police to report a serious crime like rape?

Police will investigate these allegations, and they may even decide to bring charges against Phedonos, but we believe the interior minister should not have bowed to the pressure to put him on mandatory leave. It is like he has happily become an accomplice to the efforts to destroy Phedonos’ political career. There is no coming back for the mayor after this. The court cases will take a few years to complete and even if he were acquitted, he would be finished as a politician. The government has made sure of that by the way it has treated the allegations.