Cyprus ex-ministers charged with manslaughter over blast

Manslaughter charges were filed against Cyprus’s former foreign and defence ministers on Monday in connection with a munitions blast that killed 13 people and crippled the country’s main power plant, state radio said.
Former foreign minister Marcos Kyprianou and ex-defence minister Costas Papacostas are among eight public officials — who also include three senior army officers and three senior fire service officials — facing prosecution over the July 11 blast that also injured 62 people.
Their separate charge sheets were filed at Larnaca district court on the island’s south coast on Monday.
According to state media, they face charges of manslaughter, causing death through negligence, dereliction of duty and acts which caused bodily harm.
The other accused are former army commander Petros Tsalikides, his deputy Savvas Argyrou and army Colonel George Georgiades, along with fire chief Andreas Nicolaou, deputy fire chief Pambos Charalambous and commander of the fire service’s disaster reaction unit, Andreas Loizides.
The eight accused are scheduled to appear before a Larnaca district court on April 23 to hear the charges against them before a trial date is set.
A public inquiry found President Demetris Christofias responsible for the explosion, but there was never any possibility of legal proceedings against him as the constitution gives him immunity from prosecution.
Kyprianou, Papacostas and the army commander all resigned over the blast. The deputy commander was sacked.
There was a public outcry after munitions stored in the open at a naval base for three years exploded despite repeated warnings that they were unsafe, and streets protests called for Christofias to quit.
The president has refused to step down.
Some 98 containers were piled up unprotected at the Mari naval base, just 150 metres (yards) from the power station.
They were seized in February 2009 when Cyprus intercepted a Cypriot-flagged freighter bound from Iran for Syria and a UN sanctions committee said the consignment contravened a ban on Iranian arms shipments.