Nicosia, Cyprus. The Anti-Corruption Authority on Friday rejected public claims questioning the validity and impartiality of the process preceding its investigation into the book Mafia State and the final report approved by the Authority.
It said it had found no conflict of interest involving Australian lawyer Gabrielle McIntyre, who led the investigation, but did not address a media claim that she had previously worked on international criminal court-related cases with Leto Cariolou, the lawyer for Mafia State author Makarios Drousiotis.
Conflict of interest claims
The Authority said all inspection officers sign a declaration confirming the absence of conflicts of interest for the duration of an investigation.
It said it had examined allegations concerning McIntyre and concluded that there was “no issue of conflict of interest whatsoever.”
The statement did not specifically address the claim that McIntyre may have worked with Cariolou. Cariolou served as a legal officer at the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals and worked on war crimes proceedings involving Bosnian Serbs, including Radovan Karadzic.
McIntyre had served as head legal counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.
Selection process
The Authority said it had sought from the outset to appoint a reputable foreign lawyer with no previous links to Cyprus in order to ensure the procedure’s impartiality.
It said it contacted unnamed international and European organisations, as well as individuals in Greece, and considered about 25 candidates. Interviews were conducted through teleconferences or telephone calls, while many candidates could not accept the assignment because of the investigation’s demands.
The Authority said McIntyre was ultimately selected as the most suitable person to lead the process, rejecting allegations that her appointment had been predetermined or motivated by ulterior considerations.
Questions on remuneration
The Cyprus Mail said it submitted questions to the Authority a week earlier regarding the investigation and was told that Friday’s statement addressed most of them.
The statement did not disclose how much McIntyre had been paid for her work. It also did not explain how she had been remunerated since May 2025, when she was carrying out investigative work in her free time without payment while employed full-time as director of the secretariat of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute.