Georghios Petrides v Cyprus

• Jurisdiction: Chipre
• Date: 18 December 1964
• Court: Supreme Court (Cyprus)

Cyprus Supreme Court.

(Vassiliades J., Triantafylliades J. and Munir J.)

Georghios Petrides and Others

and

Republic

JURISDICTION

Jurisdiction In general Territorial Territorial limits of jurisdiction Forgery of Cyprus currency notes Forgery done in Greece Whether an offence under the law of Cyprus and subject to jurisdiction of Cyprus courts Whether acts done must also be an offence in Greece The law of Cyprus

Summary: The facts.The appellants were tried before the Assize Court of Nicosia on charges of conspiracy to forge Cyprus 5 currency notes, contrary to section 371 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap. 154, and section 16 of the Currency Law, Cap. 197, and of possessing forged Cyprus currency notes, contrary to section 18 of the Criminal Code Law. All four were found guilty on the conspiracy count, but two only were found guilty on the possession count.

During the hearing of the case, before the Assize Court the issue arose, under section 371 of the Criminal Code Law, whether it was necessary to adduce evidence proving that the forging of Cyprus currency notes, which was proposed to be done in Athens, was an offence under the laws in force in Greece. The Assize Court held that the Criminal Code applied to offences committed abroad if the offence was connected with the coins or currency notes of the Republic and that it was not necessary to show that the forgery would amount to an offence under the law of the country where the forgery would take place. An appeal was made to the Supreme Court.

Held: The appeal must be allowed, and a new trial held. Although section 5 of the Criminal Code Law, as amended in 1962, is a general provision dealing with the question of territorial and extra-territorial application of the Criminal Code Law, it has not repealed by implication the requirement under section 371 to the effect that the act, the subject of conspiracy, should be also an offence by the laws in force in the place abroad where it is to be done. Consequently, it ought to have been established before the trial Court, as an essential ingredient of the offence of conspiracy charged under section 371, that the forging of Cyprus currency notes in Athens was an offence under the laws enforced in Greece.

The following is the text of the judgment of the Court (delivered by Triantafyllides J.) so far as it concerned the question of jurisdiction. [The remainder of the judgment was concerned with the question of whether the Court should order a retrial:]

The four appellants in these cases appeal against their convictions on 18 June 1964 by the Assize Court of Nicosia, on charges of conspiracy to forge Cyprus currency notes of 5 denomination, contrary to section 371 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap. 154, and section 16 of the Currency Law, Cap. 197, and of possessing forged Cyprus currency notes of 5 denomination, contrary to section 18 of the Currency Law and sections 20 and 21 of the Criminal Code Law.

These four appeals were consolidated and, for convenience, appellants have continued to be referred to by the numbers which they had been given as accused persons at their trial. There were six accused at the trial before the Assize Court, of whom accused five was acquitted and accused one, having appealed, later withdrew his appeal.

All appellants were found guilty on the conspiracy count but only appellants three and four were found guilty on the possession count, the other two appellants, two and six, having been acquitted thereof.

In view of the conclusions reached by the court in these appeals it would not be proper to embark at length upon the salient facts. It suffices to say that Cyprus 5 notes were in the process of being forged in Athens, with a view to their eventual introduction into Cyprus; the amount involved would have been about half a million pounds. It was, no doubt, a criminal enterprise of unparalleled kind. The matter came to the notice of both the Cyprus and the Greek police authorities and eventually through timely and praiseworthy action of such police authorities the scheme was foiled; some specimen forged 5 notes which were sent to Cyprus were seized by the police on the 3 October 1963.

There is a legal issue which is fundamental for the purpose of deciding on the validity of the conviction on the conspiracy count. Such issue is the one concerning the correct application of section 371 of Cap. 154, which reads as follows:

371. Any person who conspires with another to commit any felony, or to do any act in any part of the world which if done in the Colony would be a felony, and which is an offence under the laws in force in the place where it is proposed to be done, is guilty of a felony, and is liable, if no other punishment is provided, to imprisonment for seven years, or, if the...