Law commissioner acquitted in breathalyser sample case

Law commissioner Louiza Christodoulidou Zannetou was on Tuesday acquitted of all charges against her regarding her failure to undergo a second breathalyser test when an initial reading showed she had been driving while over the legal alcohol limit.

The incident occurred on January 11 last year, with the prosecution on Tuesday having asserted that she had failed to provide a second sample “without reasonable cause”.

However, Nicosia district judge Georgia Karamalli said it was “not documented in court” that Zannetou had “knowingly refused to cooperate” or that she had “avoided providing a sufficient sample”.

The court found that the regular examination procedure for drink driving was “not followed in the appropriate manner” and that as such, the charges she faced were “unsubstantiated”.

“The accused managed to shake off the burden of proof, adequately connecting the alleged medical reasons with her inability to provide a satisfactory sample,” Karamalli told the court, adding that the prosecution had “failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt the charge the accused faced”.

The “medical reasons” in question centred on the fact that Zannetou is a smoker, and that she “suffers from chronic, persistent bronchial asthma”.

Karamalli said Zannetou was suffering from symptoms of asthma when she was asked to give a breathalyser sample, and that she was also suffering from bronchitis at the time.

In addition, she said, Zannetou had been “exposed to cold air”, was “emotionally distressed”, was “fatigued”, and “had been smoking”, thus rendering her unable to give a satisfactory sample of 1.2 litres of breath to be analysed.