Filenews 8 May 2022 - by Marios Demetriou
"We will study the request of David Hunter's lawyers and accordingly we will handle the matter, on which we have not yet decided definitively", was the answer given to "F" by the Attorney General George Savvidis when he was asked by our newspaper to take a position on the letter he got from the lawyers' defence team of the 74-year-old British former miner, with a suggestion to end his criminal prosecution or to change the indictment of premeditated murder of his 75-year-old wife Janice Hunter on December 18, 2021 at their home in Tremithousa, Paphos.
Hunter admitted that his wife died after he closed her mouth and nose with his hands. They both came from Ashington in the Northumberland region of England and chose to live in Paphos after their retirement. His wife suffered with leukaemia in the final stage and allegedly asked her husband to end her life. He then took a large dose of pills and alcohol to end his own life, but his attempt to commit suicide failed. He was hospitalized for a few days in Nicosia hospital after receiving examinations at the Athalassa psychiatric hospital and then he was transferred to the Central Prison, where he has since been held as a suspect awaiting trial.
David Hunter is accused before the Pafos Assize Court of premeditated murder of his wife and the trial of the case was due to begin on April 18, 2022, but was postponed to June 16, 2022 after his lawyers asked him for time to obtain necessary witness material. "It is indeed a special case and is handled by the Assistant Attorney General, Savvas Angelidis, with a team of lawyers of the Legal Service", Mr. Savvidis told us about this case of assisted suicide as presented in the letter – a case that took on international dimensions, occupied and is of great concern to the British press (newspapers and broadcasting media) and brings to the forefront in the public debate in Cyprus the difficult issue of euthanasia and the request for its legitimacy. In Cyprus, as in Britain, assisted suicide is a criminal offence. The issue was discussed for the first time in the Cyprus Parliament on 24 January 2022. It is indicative that tomorrow, Monday, May 9, 2022, the discussion of the issue entitled "Euthanasia – the need to inform and initiate social dialogue in Cyprus" will continue in the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights.
On assisted suicide
"We piously testify that it is not in the public interest to register a court proceedings against David Hunter for any criminal offence, given the particular circumstances of this case, however if you disagree with our submission, then we consider and believe that the charge of aiding suicide (Section 218 of the Criminal Code) is more consistent with the facts and circumstances of the case and the interest of Justice in this case than, what the premeditated murder for which our client is accused."
The above are mentioned in the letter served on March 18, 2022 to the Attorney General George Savvidis signed by the British lawyer of the organization "Justice Abroad" Michael Polak and his Cypriot colleague Nicoletta Charalambidou, who together with the lawyer Ritsa Pekri constitute the defence team of Hunter. As stated in the letter to the Attorney General, "the evidence suggests that Janice Hunter, having seen her sister's health condition deteriorate due to blood cancer and eventually die, and suffering herself from the same disease which, with the deterioration of her condition, caused intense and worsening constant pain, asked her husband to help her end her life. Mr. Hunter was identified by the Police after taking a large quantity of prescription drugs in an attempt to end his life after the death of his wife. When there is joint suicide where a party survives, as in the case of David Hunter, it is not always in the public interest to pursue a criminal prosecution, even for the offence of aiding suicide that is less serious than premeditated murder."
Motions against criminal prosecution
The defendant's lawyers also state the following, addressing the Attorney General: "In addition, we propose that in relation to some of the factors identified above, the following weigh against the criminal prosecution of Mr. Hunter in the present case: The age of Mrs. Hunter and the fact that she was able to form a repressed voluntary decision to end her life. That she clearly and categorically communicated her decision to end her life to Mr Hunter. Mrs. Hunter was suffering from an incurable disease. Mr. Hunter was fully motivated by compassion, having entered into a loving and caring relationship with Mrs. Hunter for more than 50 years. Mr. Hunter sought to prevent the victim from ending her life and his actions can be described as reluctant help in the face of the victim's determined desire to end her life.
Mr. Hunter tried to end his life from an overdose of prescription drugs and fully assisted the Police in their investigations into the circumstances of his wife's death. They also weigh against the criminal prosecution of Mr. Hunter in the present case, the agony to which he has been subjected, having lost his wife for 54 years, his age and health problems and his previous exemplary character. In the light of all the above, we piously suggest that a criminal prosecution in this case does not serve the public interest at all. If you do not agree with this position, we piously suggest that prosecution for aiding suicide is more appropriate than that for premeditated murder, for which our client is currently accused. We therefore request for a re-evaluation of the case on your part and a decision to change the indictment in the way we propose, since in addition to the above reasons that we have already cited, the re-evaluation in the way we propose will prevent the hearing of the case resulting in saving also valuable judicial time and costs.
The message of Lesley Cowthorpe Hunter
From the town of Norwich where she lives with her family, Lesley Cowthorpe, the only child of David and Janice Hunter, sent "F" the following text message: "What I want to say to your readers is that my parents were together for 56 years and were fully devoted to each other. My dad was a wonderful husband and father who adored my mom. We desperately want to bring him home so we can take care of him. I love my father with all my heart and he has my full support."
In the tomb of Janice Hunter
About the relationship of love and devotion that united the Hunter couple spoke to the signatory and the community leader of Tremithousa, Christofis Petrou, last Sunday, when we visited together the cemetery of the community and the tomb of Janice Hunter. He told us that her funeral was attended by himself, the couple's lawyer in Paphos Popi Athinodorou with her husband and some of their British friends.
"David was a man of gold," he told us. "I am one hundred percent sure that he did it to free her from the pains, since they were both living a torment - she was in pain because of her illness and he was suffering for seeing her in this bad situation. I saw them often, since one of my daughters lives in the same neighbourhood. His wife constantly complained about her illness. They lived in Tremithousa since 2016 and rented a house from our company, after selling their own apartment in Kato Paphos. They were a peaceful couple, loved by all the villagers, although they did not speak Greek. They were very formal in their financial obligations and at the end of each month David was looking to find us to pay the rent. The house was in excellent condition and spotlessly clean. They had also made good friends here, including the priest of the community, since their house was next to the church. David was taking his wife almost every other day to the hospital for dialysis and we were all greeted still with a smile. What I do know is that on that fateful day he sent a mobile message to his brother abroad that he killed his wife after she asked him to do so and that he himself was ready to commit suicide. His brother immediately alerted Interpol who alerted the Paphos Police, who contacted me."
As Mr. Petrou, who has been the community leader of Tremithousa for the last 20 years, told us, the community is inhabited today by about 1,300 people, of whom 500-600 are foreign pensioners but also younger mainly British, German, Dutch and a few Chinese.
The well-known lawyer of Pafos Popi Athinodorou, who specializes in real estate and investment cases, is the person who knows the Hunter couple better than any other Cypriot, since as she told us, David Hunter was her client for almost 20 years. She also assured us that "he was a very beloved husband" and informed us that David "had bought in Paphos a small one-bedroom apartment before he even got a pension, but when his wife was diagnosed with the disease, they sold the apartment so that they could pay the doctors and rented a house in Tremithousa".
Mrs. Athinodorou told us that "on Christmas Eve she was informed by the Police that her client had been transferred for examinations to the psychiatric hospital of Athalassa" and that "she visited him there on Christmas Day". She concluded by stating that after the woman's death and the arrest of her husband, she settled all the practical loose ends concerning the Hunter couple, including the funeral.
Identification with a criminal act
The honorary president of the organization Cyprus Stop Trafficking, Androula Christofides Enriques, who organized in 2019 the first public debate in Cyprus on the right to euthanasia and is a member of the Swiss organization Exit that helps those who have incurable diseases with chronic pain, to choose to end their lives when they request it, painlessly and with dignity, commented as follows to "F" on the case of the Hunter couple:
"This case has given rise to deeper concern in some of us about euthanasia or, if you prefer, assisted suicide. In many countries euthanasia, under certain circumstances and regulations, is legal and no one equates it with murder. Cyprus, a European country, with laws of which we can be proud, ignores the meaning of two basic words: trafficking and euthanasia. The first is identified by most people with prostitution and the second with a criminal act.
In 2019 I published a booklet titled "Operation Euthanasia" and its presentation became a cause for much debate on the subject, Does anyone have the right to ask for help to put a dignified end to his life when it becomes a martyrdom? For those who are religious, the answer to the question is very simple: no, it has no such right. The Church, Catholic and Orthodox, has a tremendous influence on people's thoughts and deep roots that go back to the Middle Ages. But those of us who do not have the happiness of having unwavering faith in what the Church tells us, should we not have the right in a civilized country such as Cyprus to choose a dignified "end of life"? Fortunately, the issue began to be debated in the House and there is hope ("the hope that it seizes") in perhaps thirty years to pass a law according to which euthanasia is allowed and no longer considered a crime. I want to end with brief thoughts about the laws of a country and what is considered a crime. In Cyprus polygamy is prohibited. In some Muslim countries it is allowed. Two decades ago in Cyprus, trafficking in persons was legal. Today the law criminalizes not only the trafficker, but also the customer. Should we believe that an act is only criminal if there is a law prohibiting it?"
