BRITISH home buyer Conor O’Dwyer was furious yesterday that it will have taken more than a year for Paralimni court to hear his case involving an alleged beating by the property developers with whom he is in dispute over a house purchase.
On Thursday the developers, Karayiannas, father and son, pleaded not guilty to grievous bodily harm after O’Dwyer spent a week in Larnaca hospital at the beginning of this year.
According to O’Dwyer’s lawyer Yiannos Georgiaides the court set the hearing for January 20, 2009. The assault happened on January 14 this year.
A third man, who O’Dwyer claims held him down while the two developers attacked him in the centre of Frenaros, failed to show up at court on Thursday but his lawyer guaranteed the judge that he would show up on October 23 to enter a plea and the arrest warrant was cancelled.
Georgiades said from the date of the assault to the date of the hearing was more than a year. “We had to keep contacting the Attorney General’s office for a long time for information on the prosecution case,” said Georgiades. “Conor is justifiably upset over the delay in taking the case to court. It’s not usual for the courts to fix dates such a long way off.”
He said cases involving assault were usually tried very quickly.
O’Dwyer, 39, who has spent the last 60 days protesting outside the Cyprus High Commission in London said he was furious over the length of time it was taking considering it was a criminal case and not a civil one.
He added police had not filed any charges against the father and son, who O’Dwyer said had grabbed his mobile phone and the memory stick from his camera the day he was assaulted. O’Dwyer had been filming the alleged confrontation. His phone was never recovered and the camera was returned empty.
“It’s all absolutely disgusting,” said O’Dwyer. He said he had met the new Cyprus High Commissioner and another Cypriot official on Thursday and made his feelings clear. “I let them know I was annoyed,” he said. “And I gave them a list of my grievances. I have been here 60 nights. Where is the investigation into the unlawful selling of my house that the Minister said in August 2007, would be carried out?”
“My money is in his (Karayiannas) bank and someone else is living in my house”.
Every detail of O’ Dwyer’s case has been outlined on his website www.lyingbuilder.com and he has now set up a new site www.ShameOnCyprus.com.
O’Dwyer said the only option left to him was the road to Strasbourg. He has hired an EU law firm in London and plans to take action against Karayiannas, the developers` lawyers in Paralimni and another law firm that used to represent him but now represents the developers, and all those who have defamed his name.
“What happened on Thursday with the court case was the final insult,” O’Dwyer said.
Commenting on the response he has been receiving from the Cyprus High Commission in London, O`Dwyer said it’s always “investigation, investigation, investigation”. But nothing has changed since August 2007,” he said.
“I have been here 60 days. My wife and children are upset that I’m here and I have lost two stones in weight but I am determined not to move”.
October 5, 2008
(Source: Cyprus Mail)