The Supreme Court has allowed businessman Savvas Kakos to challenge the arrest warrant issued against him, finding that there was an initial case that the warrant may have been issued without the required conditions and without all relevant information being presented to the court.
The decision was issued on Thursday after Kakos, a 62-year-old businessman from Larnaca, appealed against the warrant issued during a police investigation into 11 complaints concerning alleged offences including fraud, forgery, false representations and money laundering.
The Supreme Court found that Kakos had presented an “arguable case” that the warrant had been issued beyond the police’s authority and that the necessary conditions may not have been met.
The court also found that relevant information had not been presented to the lower court when the warrant was sought.
Police had argued that Kakos needed to be arrested because he could influence witnesses or destroy documents connected to the investigation.
His lawyers Antonis Demetriou and Chara Alexandrou argued that their client had known about the allegations for a long time and therefore had already had the opportunity to influence witnesses or remove evidence if that had been his intention.
They also argued that police had obtained a search warrant for the offices where the documents were believed to be held, meaning the material could be seized without Kakos being arrested.
The Supreme Court found that the latest complaint against Kakos had not been separated from the earlier complaints in a way that would justify the arrest warrant on its own, with the warrant instead referred to all the cases being investigated.
The court has now given Kakos permission to formally apply for the warrant to be cancelled, and the legal service must decide whether it will oppose the application.
Should the legal service object, the Supreme Court will hear arguments from both sides before making a decision. If it does not object, the warrant is expected to be cancelled.
Police investigations into the complaints against Kakos are continuing. He was arrested on July 28 and released after completing a four-day remand.
The cases concern alleged offences dating mainly from 2022 to 2024 and involve real estate transactions involving companies from his business group.
Police had also obtained a search warrant for Kakos’s offices, which his lawyers are separately seeking to have cancelled.
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