Former deputy AG pleads ‘not guilty’ to embezzlement charges

Former deputy attorney general Loukis Loucaides pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to embezzlement charges concerning the appropriation of property worth €117,000. The hearing has been set for February 9, 2027. The case emerged after the administrator of a deceased woman’s property filed a complaint that the appropriation money paid by the Limassol municipality, which Loucaides received, had not been transferred to the estate administrator. Loucaides, who served as deputy attorney-general from 1975 to 1998 and later as a judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), appeared before the Limassol criminal court on Tuesday to answer to the charges of theft by proxy and money laundering, relating to compensation paid for the expropriation of a deceased woman’s property. The complaint was filed in July last year by the administrator of the deceased’s estate and concerns €177,108.12. Loucaides has consistently rejected the allegations, describing his indictment as “malicious” and insisting that “there is no crime on [his] part.” He has said the case dates back to 2008, when he was assigned by the estate’s then administrator to sue the municipality over the expropriation after it failed to compensate for the demolition of the woman’s house, which was pulled down to make way for a road. A district court initially dismissed the lawsuit, but Loucaides appealed and the court of appeals ordered the municipality to settle out of court, with Loucaides negotiating on his client’s behalf. Once a settlement was reached, Loucaides has claimed, he received the money intending to hand it to his client, but the administrator had since changed and could not be traced. A new estate administrator was appointed last year and Loucaides said he was then contacted and instructed to transfer the funds, an offer he said he made in writing, but which went unanswered.