LARNACA – An arrest warrant was issued on Monday for defendant and former National Guard commander Petros Tsalikidis after he failed to appear at the first hearing in the criminal trial for the 2011 Mari explosion which killed 13 men.
The hearing was postponed until May 18 during which time the authorities will attempt to locate Tsalikides, who faces charges of manslaughter and negligence, and is currently believed to be in Greece.
Also standing trial are former Minister of Defence Costas Papacostas, former Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou, former NG deputy chief Savvas Argyrou, Colonel Georgios Georgiades, fire services chief Andreas Nicolaou, deputy chief Charalambos Charalambous and commander of the disaster response unit (EMAK) Andreas Loizides.
The defendants all face charges of criminal negligence and manslaughter which carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The criminal trial was launched after 98 containers of munitions seized from an Iranian ship exploded on the Evangelos Florakis naval base in Mari near Limassol on July 11 last year, killing seven sailors and six firemen, injuring 62 and completely destroying Cyprus’s main power station.
Investigations into the explosion revealed the containers had been haphazardly stored on the base and exposed to the elements without any form of cover for nearly two years.