The Limassol Criminal Court handed a 42-year-old man a consecutive four-year prison sentence today for attacking a state prosecutor in court on April 3.
The defendant faced a single charge of causing grievous bodily harm, an offence under Article 231 of the Criminal Code carrying a maximum sentence of seven years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both.
The attack took place after the same court had sentenced the defendant to four years in prison for the abduction of a former partner. As the three-judge panel left the courtroom, the defendant was heard to say from the dock: “Four years for two slaps?”
He then attacked the state prosecutor as he was being escorted out of the courtroom by two members of police’s MMAD unit, fracturing her nose and causing swelling to her upper lip.
At the previous hearing, his defence counsel argued in mitigation, saying her client wished to express remorse. In a handwritten note passed to his lawyer, the defendant wrote: “I have regretted my actions and I apologise. I was not myself. I know there is no excuse for what I did.”
The four-year sentence will begin once the defendant has served his earlier sentence. One month spent in pre-trial detention for this case will be deducted from the new term.