Doria Varoshiotou’s appeal against the supreme judicial council’s decision to relieve her of her duties as a judge will have its first hearing next week.

The hearing will take place on July 16.

The supreme judicial council decided last week to not offer Varoshiotou a permanent position within the judiciary following the conclusion of a two-year probationary period.

She was the only one of 11 judges under probation whose position was discontinued, with seven being offered permanent appointments and three being given further probation.

Varoshiotou last year ruled that conscript Thanasis Nicolaou, who died in 2005, had been strangled to death,19 years after his death had been ruled a suicide and following a long campaign to have that ruling overturned by his mother Andriana Nicolaou.

That ruling prompted a wave of appeals from former state pathologist Panicos Stavrianos.

While those appeals were unsuccessful, the Supreme Court found in February that Varoshiotou had made a “legal error” in not allowing Stavrianos to testify during the case.

Despite this, the Supreme Court also found that it would “not serve any purpose” to annul Varoshiotou’s decision “for reasons of public interest and justice”.

Later last week, President Nikos Christodoulides demanded “public explanations” over the reasons for Varoshiotou’s dismissal.

“I fully understand the social reaction and the feeling created in society. It is extremely important that those who took this decision, and it was not the executive power, explain publicly why they took it. I repeat, I understand the reactions from society,” Christodoulides said.

Meanwhile, Andriana Nicolaou described the decision to relieve Varoshiotou of her duties as “unacceptable” describing her as “a worthy and incorruptible judge”.