A verdict in the case against Georgios Christodoulou Zavrantonas, who stands accused of having been in possession of 15 kilograms of cocaine, is expected to be issued by the Nicosia criminal court on October 16, following the conclusion of proceedings on Friday.

The decision will be a “prima facie” ruling, meaning that it will be decided whether or not he is culpable for a crime, before further hearings will be held to decide the exact nature of the crimes committed and the severity of any punishment he may face.

On Friday, defence lawyers argued that a key prosecution witness, named as Yiannis Andreou, had given a testimony which was “so contradictory and unlawful” that Zavrantonas himself should not be asked to testify.

The prosecution countered that the credibility of any given witness should only be examined during “the final evaluation” of the case.

Defence lawyer Christos Poutziouris said that Andreou had “adopted a specific version of events” in a previous testimony, but then later said that the version of events he had recounted was “not true”.

In response, prosecution spokesman Vasilis Bissas said that the prosecution would not comment yet and instead argue the validity of Andreou’s statement at the end of proceedings.

Now aged 49, Zavrantonas has had various run-ins with the law in the past, having been sentenced to concurrent sentences of 12 years in prison for homicide, six years for carrying a pistol, seven years for using a pistol, and two years for possessing explosives without a licence in 1999.

In 2005, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for cultivating a Class B drug with the intent to supply, while in 2010, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder and four years in prison for conspiracy to commit a felony.

More recently, he was sentenced to five years in prison for possessing explosives without a licence, four years in prison for causing grievous bodily harm, and seven years in prison for transporting a firearm in 2014, before being sentenced to 22 years for cocaine possession in 2022.

However, in May, the court of appeal ordered a retrial, with Poutziouris arguing at the time that when Zavrantonas was initially convicted, the court he faced was not the “natural” court he would have faced, as the composition of its judges changed.