Cyprus Mail 27 May 2020 - by Peter Michael
Former Civil Aviation Director Leonidas Leonidou was sentenced to six months in prison on Wednesday after he was found guilty of abuse of power last week.
According to the court decision, Leonidou was found guilty on all charges, including abuse of power, forgery, altering documents on file, and neglecting his duty station, for which he was jailed for three and two months respectively.
The charges will run concurrently, so Leonidou will serve six months, the longest sentence.
The court also denied a request by the defence to suspend the sentence and decided on immediate imprisonment.
Daily Phileleftheros brought the issue to light back in 2010 it revealed documents that were forged by the then director. Specifically, one document was dated December 1, 2006 and labelled with the new address of the department’s offices, to which it moved to a year later.
Further investigations on Leonidou’s computers showed he had been forging dates on archived material. He would archive the material on dates prior to the actual date of filing.
Leonidou was also charged with forging a document announcing a position for a doctor in civil aviation. The document in question proved to be drawn up later then it stated.
The case came to light, after an applicant for the medical position was denied the spot and filed a formal complaint with the administrative court.
