Family violence sentence upheld by appeals court

The appeals court on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s decision to keep a man in custody in a serious family violence case, ordering that he remain detained until the next hearing.

It found the two arguments submitted by the defendant to be unfounded, concluding the district court of Paphos acted correctly.

The case involves alleged offences including family violence, interference with judicial proceedings, breach of a court order, contempt of court and harassment.

Court documents state that the defendant allegedly threatened his underage son, violated an order prohibiting harassment of the child, and engaged in actions that could have affected the trial, in which the child’s mother is a prosecution witness.

The appeals court said the defendant did not plead guilty, leading the case to proceed to a hearing. In his first appeal argument, he claimed the district court wrongly decided that reasons for his detention still existed.

He argued that the court order was never properly served and that witnesses had already given evidence. In his second argument, he claimed that the prosecution had requested the adjournment, making continued detention unfair.

The appeals court also found that the 12-day period until the next hearing, combined with the total duration of detention, did not make the district court’s decision disproportionate or incorrect.

It added that the lower court had managed the process properly and clearly justified its decision.