5th meeting

Prosecution proposed the rejection of objection for bad composition of the court, with essentially no legal argumentation. The prosecution's role was an ungraceful one, considering they knew very well that the law in question was a law that photographed these trials and was not intended for common affairs, but only for these specific serious political trials. They were also aware of the fact that in a couple of recent cases with similar characteristics that could have come under the same law (the case of the boat China Bridge that lasted eight months and the case of the Samina wreck still ongoing) judges were not determined from a preselected short-listed group. That this law was only applied to the two trials for the group 17N and the two for the group ELA.

A short comment was made by Hristodoulos Xiros:

"In reference to the advocates of the selective draw for judges- he said - the problem is that this law was applied only to us and it will not be applied anywhere else. This renders this court as a special and extraordinary court, with all the logical consequences of this."

At the beginning of rejoinders, the prosecution advocate Anagnostopoulos objected to having been called "representative of American victims", by a defence advocate. He argued that this was evidence of intolerance and racism cultivated by the 17N.

Dimitris Koufontinas immediately reacted "You represent criminals, you represent imperialist criminals that slaughter populations, as in Irak, you represent American imperialism, that caused the crime of Cyprus, and its new sub-prefect, Reece", he said addressing the arrogant lawyer, who realised it was not possible for him to continue.

Later, speaking to the journalists, Dimitris Koufontinas also commented on the characterization "racists", that Anagnostopoulos dared use for the 17N. "Racists are the people he represents and not us. They are racist not only towards the populations of the third world, but also in their own country, as proved by the story of the hurricane Katrina. Let him call 90% of the Greek population racists, that nourish anti-american feelings. Our opposition is to imperialism and not to the American population."

The court rejected the objection, because - as the chairman announced - the process of determining the composition of the judges is contrary to no provision of the Constitution or ESDA.

The court also decided to allow the use of the report about the keys in the trial despite the fact that it was illegally carried out by the Security authorities, and following intense confrantation between the defence and the prosecution.