The Bishop of Morphou, Neophytos, will face retrial over events dating to 2021 after the Court of Appeal today quashed his acquittal and ordered the case to be reheard before a different court.
The Appeal Court accepted the Attorney General’s appeal against the 2023 acquittal, finding errors in the first instance court’s judgment.
That court had not found even a prima facie case against the Bishop, who had been acquitted on four charges relating to breach of the quarantine law on gatherings of more than two persons and incitement to commit a criminal offence.
The Bishop was present in court as the three Appeal Court judges delivered their ruling. The defence, led by Nikos Clerides, had argued that the appeal was abusive in that its success would lead to a retrial five years after the alleged offences, and that the Attorney General could not properly challenge the first instance court’s assessment of evidence — including its conclusion that the conduct in question amounted to a permissible exercise of religious worship. The Appeal Court rejected both arguments.
The court found that the case concerned serious offences in the sense that they allegedly involved the actions of a person in the respondent’s position on serious public health matters.
Noting that every citizen was being tested by the particular circumstances of the pandemic at that time, the Appeal Court concluded that the interests of justice required a retrial, and that the time elapsed since the alleged offences did not, in the circumstances, exceed a reasonable period for determining the Bishop’s potential criminal liability.
The court recalled the text read by the Bishop on 2 January 2021, in which he invited the faithful to the Epiphany blessing at the Klarios river, finding that the evidence before the first instance court, as recorded by that court itself, had permitted a contrary conclusion on the charges.
The Appeal Court further found that the first instance court’s legal analysis was also flawed. The three judges said they could not identify the basis on which the first instance court had determined that the activity constituted religious worship, adding that even if that were the case, it was an error not to proceed under Article 83 of the Criminal Procedure Law, Cap. 155.
The judges also noted that the defence had not argued at the prima facie stage that no case had been established against the respondent.
On that basis, the court found that the prosecution had established a prima facie case and that the Bishop should have been called to present his defence after being informed of his rights. The court ordered a retrial before a different judge of Nicosia District Court as soon as possible.