Highlights from the defense of Giorgos Christodoulou Zavrantonas before the Nicosia Criminal Court, where proceedings continued for a second day, the cross-examination of the prosecution’s key witness, Yiannis Andreou, also known as Maronas. Maronas had named Zavrantonas as the mastermind behind the ring that smuggled 15 kilograms of cocaine through the Netherlands—which was seized in Lakatamia in 2019—and received a presidential pardon.

A party with wine glasses

A stir was caused when the defense showed a video depicting Maronas cutting a birthday cake at the Pera Chori Police Station, where he was transferred after joining the witness protection program.

CHRISTOS POUTZIOURIS (Zavrantonas’s defense attorney): I’m pointing out that you had a party with grapevines at the station.

MARONAS (Prosecution Witness): I didn’t see any grapevine birds.

CHRISTOS POUTZIOURIS: They threw a party for you as their leader. In the video, someone can be heard saying, “May you live with plenty of coke.” Why did he say that?

Prosecution Witness: Ask him.

During cross-examination, the murder case of Alexis Mavromichalis came up.

CHRISTOS POUTZIOURIS: I’m telling you that when you were on the show, you called Alexis Mavromichalis and threatened to kill him, and that you’d go to Zavrantona!

MARONAS: I disagree. I never called Alexis…

Christos Poutziouris accused Maronas of being a drug dealer, to which Maronas replied that he was his client’s man.

CHRISTOS POUTZIOURIS: I allege that you were the dealer and trafficker.

MARONAS: I wasn’t a dealer. First you said I owed you rent, and now I’m a major drug dealer.

CHRISTOS POUTZIOURIS: You were playing both sides—you were a double-dealer!

The cross-examination inevitably turned to the desecration of Maronas’s mother’s grave in Anthoupoli on November 17, 2011, with Christos Poutziouris asking whether this was done to intimidate him.

MARONAS: Are you asking me? Ask your client who sent them.

The Principality

The defense submitted to the court an arrest warrant against Maronas for firing shots and throwing a grenade at the property of a Greek Cypriot businessman, during a period when he was supposed to be abroad, according to the terms of his release. Marona admitted that a few days later he traveled to Kormakiti, where he has been residing ever since, believing that his village is not part of the Republic.

Watch the report by Christoforos Nestoros