Five investigators from the Police were requested by the independent criminal investigators appointed by the Council of Ministers to investigate what the Anti-Corruption Authority identified for the "Mafia State".
The team of investigators from the Police will take up duties soon and their role will be supportive of the criminal investigators. They will undertake the taking of statements in cooperation with the criminal investigators, the issuance of warrants or decrees where necessary and the analysis of financial or other data. It is considered that the role of the Police investigators will be decisive, since they will carry out instructions and assist the criminal investigators in practical matters.
It is possible that each criminal investigator will have a Police investigator and everyone will then act as a team. Depending on the tactics to be followed, they will also be assigned special tasks to be performed. Because specific chapters that have already been examined by the inspection officers of the Independent Anti-Corruption Authority will be investigated, it is expected that the investigation will be "split" so that faster actions can be taken for what is required, in order to have a result in a reasonable period of time.
The two criminal investigators from Greece, Vassilios Skouris, head of the team, and the emeritus professor, Elias Anagnostopoulos, have left Cyprus after the first meeting at the Conference Center, in order to study the conclusion and return at the end of July. The other three Cypriot criminal investigators, Sotiris Liasides, Nikolas Koursaris and Dimitris Tsolakidis, will do the same.
The material collected by the five inspection officers of the Anti-Corruption Authority is huge, since the final Report numbers 3,000 pages, the total number of items submitted was 793. Evidence was submitted by 41 legal entities and government departments, while the total number of witnesses he testified amounted to 150.
It is becoming obvious that the work of the criminal investigators will not be easy and the six months given as a time limit for completing the investigation are expected to be not enough, given that the August leaves are in between and most persons of interest will be absent.
However, it is estimated, according to information from "F", that the first witnesses will be called, either in August or at the beginning of September, and it is not excluded that the opening of bank accounts of controlled persons will be requested if there is the legal basis to support such a request in Court. Also, the Unit for Combating Cover-up Offenses (MOKAS) will have a subsidiary role, while if requested by the criminal investigators, a team of lawyers will be set up in the Legal Service to provide advice and guidance.
The goal is not to have the involvement of the Legal Service until the final stage, however, this will also depend on the course of the investigations and the findings that will emerge. The criminal investigators will meet at the Conference where a special space has been set up and they will be provided with secretarial and support staff.
