AKEL is calling for the full publication of the findings on Videogate, noting, among other things, that the criminal investigator’s findings do not provide answers to the events that Cypriot society has been following.

In a statement, the party describes the report by independent criminal investigator Andreas Paschalidis as “empty rhetoric,” which, according to the party, amounts to downplaying the phenomenon of institutional collusion.

It is also interesting to note the adoption of political language and arguments by a distinguished legal scholar and criminal investigator, which echoes the arguments and findings adopted by the Presidential Office a few hours after the video was released,” AKEL adds, among other things.

The AKEL statement in its entirety

The criminal investigator’s findings regarding the video of shame, known as “videogate,” do not provide answers to what Cypriot society witnessed in sound and image—words uttered by a former minister in the Anastasiades government and associate of Mr. Christodoulides, as well as by the former Director of the President’s Office and Mr. Christodoulides’s brother-in-law.

In the video and in statements that were not denied by those involved, there are references to circumventing laws governing the financing of a presidential candidate, there are references to contributions that may facilitate access to the Presidency, and other morally and politically reprehensible statements that constitute the very definition of institutional collusion and political corruption.

Given all this, we did not need any findings to comment on the obvious—that the government and the President himself have remained irreparably exposed institutionally. In any case, the report’s reference to “empty rhetoric” amounts to downplaying the phenomenon of institutional collusion. It is also interesting to note the adoption of political language and arguments by a respected legal scholar and criminal investigator, which echoes the arguments and findings adopted by the Presidential Office a few hours after the video was released.

AKEL calls for the full publication of the findings in the interest of transparency. This, moreover, is dictated by the public interest.