The Supreme Court on Monday lifted the parliamentary immunity of former Edek leader and sitting MP Marinos Sizopoulos, pending investigations against corruption.

Defence lawyer Chris Triantafyllides said his client did not object.

During the previous hearing, Sizopoulos’ defence had made clear that they would not oppose the procedure, requested by the state legal services.

Deputy attorney-general Savvas Angelides told the court on Monday that all preconditions set out in the law had been met.

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Triantafyllides reiterated Sizopoulos had no objection and wished to be treated as any other individual in the Republic.

“Our downright disagreement concerns the facts of the case and any effort to allocate criminal liability,” he said.

Triantafyllides added that the defence regretted that the case had not been moved forward sooner, taking into consideration that Sizopoulos himself had raised the issue with the police back in 2019.

After both sides had made their statements, presiding judge Katerina Stamatiou announced a short recess, after which she issued the decision to lift Sizopoulos’ immunity.

The decision followed an application by the legal service seeking permission to investigate allegations linked to the sale of shares in TAXAN Properties Developers Ltd to an Iraqi investor.

Presenting the request before the six-member bench, Angelides said the application was supported by sworn and written statements submitted earlier to the court and that the conditions required by case law for lifting parliamentary immunity had been met.

He said the government considers that all legal conditions for lifting the MP’s immunity are satisfied and stressed that “the presumption of innocence is always respected in such procedures”.

The court concluded that the request was based on genuine grounds that require investigation and stated there was no partisan motive behind the move.

In its reasoning, the supreme court said the offences under investigation carry potential prison sentences exceeding two years and that, at this stage of the procedure, the court’s role is limited to establishing that the request by the attorney-general is not arbitrary.

The court clarified that the sufficiency or quality of the evidence is not examined during the immunity procedure and stressed that “the presumption of innocence remains intact”.

The case centres on findings by the independent authority against corruption concerning the sale of shares in the company TAXAN.

According to the authority’s report, shareholders sold the company to an Iraqi investor for €2,025,000 in order to settle a bank debt of €2,581,000.

Investigators found that shareholders declared the sale price as €1,600,000.

The authority said the banking institution involved had written off €956,000 of the loan and may not have agreed to the same arrangement had it known the actual value of the transaction.

The authority’s report recommended that Sizopoulos and other individuals connected with the company be investigated for possible offences including fraud, forgery and circulation of a false document.

Following complaints submitted to the authority by former Edek MP George Varnavas, two investigators were appointed to examine the case, recommending that Sizopoulos and other individuals be investigated for potential criminal offences.

Police had previously investigated the case and forwarded a file to the attorney-general in August 2019, but prosecutors decided in July 2020 not to proceed with charges at that stage.

After Monday’s court proceedings, Sizopoulos said that “today’s decision essentially leads to a re-investigation of a case that I had reported in April 2019 and which the investigating authorities had archived for their own reasons.”

He expressed hope that “an impartial, in-depth and objective investigation will be carried out so that responsibilities are attributed where and when they truly belong.”

Triantafyllides said the defence does not dispute the legal framework governing parliamentary immunity but rejects the allegations themselves.

“Our direct disagreement concerns the actual facts of the case and any attempt to attribute criminal responsibility,” he said.

He added that Sizopoulos does not oppose the lifting of immunity because he does not wish to be treated differently and “welcomes the investigation in order to prove his innocence”.

With the lifting of immunity, investigators can proceed with questioning and further inquiry into the allegations surrounding the TAXAN share sale.