Five defendants in the private criminal prosecution by Thanasis Nicolaou’s family pleaded not guilty on Tuesday after the court rejected previous and new pre-trial objections.

The indictment includes forensic doctor Panicos Stavrianos, former Limassol police head Andreas Iatropoulos, former Limassol CID head Nicos Sophocleous, former rural police chief Christakis Nathanael and former Platres police head Christakis Kapiliotis.

The charges they face include conspiracy to obstruct justice, dereliction of duty, issuing a false certificate by a public official, perjury, providing false information, destruction of evidence and interference in judicial proceedings.

The court had initially announced the rejection of the pre-trial objections raised during the previous proceedings, while the fifth defendant, Kapiliotis, who is not represented by legal counsel, raised the issue of Limassol district court’s jurisdiction to hear the case, referring to possible disciplinary offences and not criminal offences he is facing.

Kapiliotis read his written statement and submitted a USB containing two videos of interviews given by Attorney General George Savvides. These were broadcast on TV stations and support the argument that the Legal Service did not pursue criminal prosecutions against the forensic doctor and the four former police officers.

Meanwhile, the defence lawyers raised the issue of misleading the court, given that when filing the indictment the prosecuting authority did not submit a relevant letter from the Attorney General to the family’s lawyer regarding the decision not to pursue criminal prosecution.

After a break, the court decided to reject the new objections.

All five defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The court scheduled the beginning of the hearing of the case to November 10, while at the same time setting consecutive trial dates on November 11, 12 and 13, as well as on November 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27.

Thanasis Nicolaou was found dead in 2005. His death was initially ruled a suicide, but subsequent investigations revealed he had been strangled, leading to renewed scrutiny of the original police investigation and forensic examination.