Michalis Katsounotos is perhaps the most well-known member of the police force. His name became known (let’s put it broadly) under circumstances unfavourable to him.
Indeed, an investigation into the 2022 prison events indicated potential criminal liability for the then YKAN officer.
Nevertheless, the Attorney General, citing public interest, didn’t recommend criminal prosecution, while simultaneously preventing then prison director Anna Aristotelous and her assistant Athina Demetriou from pursuing private prosecution.
The matter of disciplinary action remained, which got lost in translation from one investigation to another, while Katsounotos was transferred from YKAN to command the Port and Marine Police – a move that could be considered a promotion.
Meanwhile, his name was linked to a suspension of criminal prosecution granted by the Deputy Attorney General, while the 2012 traffic accident in which a 17-year-old was killed also resurfaced.
Despite eyewitnesses, they never found the driver who had recklessly overtaken, forcing an oncoming car to swerve, causing the young motorcyclist’s death. When the accident occurred, Michalis Katsounotos was head of traffic police in Limassol.
As of today, he’s Assistant Chief of Police.
If we lived in a well-governed state, there might not be doubts, suspicions, conjectures, or even conspiracy theories. There could be credible explanations.
But we don’t live in such a state. First and foremost, the institutions themselves would ensure no shadows remained.
However, the Attorney General’s office received a report whose findings it didn’t dispute, but invoked public interest to close the case through summary procedures.
And so today, we have an Assistant Police Chief whose name has surfaced many times. Three Justice Ministers have changed since ’22, along with prison directors and police chiefs, but Katsounotos remains and continues to rise.
People used to say better to lose an eye than your reputation. Not today.
In Ayia Napa, we have a mayor facing serious cases in the Criminal Court. Yet citizens voted for him, as they might for Katsounotos if police chief positions were decided by public vote.
Just as in America, they voted for someone against whom numerous cases are pending.
Whether we vote them in or they’re imposed upon us, we no longer care about character and conduct.
