Its president intervenes with a circular Supreme Court, Ioanna Klapaaddressed to all judicial officers of the country on the occasion of the case with the defendant Petros Filippidis.
The president of the Supreme Court draws attention to all judges in order to perform their duties with dignity and to avoid disparaging or derogatory comments that could indicate discriminatory treatment of citizens, due to gender or religion. The circular of the president of the Supreme Court is of a general content, however, it is an indirect but clear disapproval of the recent behavior of a public prosecutor in the trial of the accused Petros Filippidis and the questions and achilles he asked during the testimony of the woman who accuses him of attempted rape.
Mrs. Klapa, among other things, emphasizes that the behavior of judicial officials contributes to maintaining independence at an institutional and individual level and underlines that “the need for high-level behavior of judicial officials becomes imperative in order to consolidate public trust in justice.”
At the same time, Mrs. Klapa emphasizes that “the integrity and decency of the behavior of judicial officials within the service consists in the performance of their duties, without favoritism, partiality or discrimination, with calmness and respect for the litigants, without making comments, observations or conclusions based on individual perceptions or preferences’.
The president of the Supreme Court also emphasizes that “when adjudicating cases, in which the parties are persons who could be victims of discriminatory treatment, due to gender, race, sexual orientation, national origin or social origin, judicial officials must identify these situations and take appropriate measures, so that their behavior strengthens public trust and respect for justice and judges”.