Nicosia, Cyprus. An administrative court on Wednesday annulled the public service commission’s December 2025 decision to suspend former prison director Anna Aristotelous until the conclusion of a pending criminal case concerning classified documents removed from the prison institution. The suspension had reduced her pay by two thirds.
Court ruling
The decision was issued after Aristotelous appealed the commission’s suspension decision.
The court said the body with the authority to recommend her suspension was not the cabinet but the presidency of the Republic, as Aristotelous was still serving the presidency when the recommendation was submitted to the commission in November 2025 and had not yet taken up permanent secretary duties.
It added that the cabinet’s proposal constituted a legal error.
The court therefore ruled in favour of the appeal and cancelled the initial decision.
Lawyer’s letter
Aristotelous’ lawyer, Chris Triantafyllides, sent a letter on Wednesday to the cabinet secretariat informing it that the suspension had been cancelled and requesting that his client be immediately appointed to a corresponding permanent secretary position.
Document investigation
In April 2025, a police search of the home of a prison warden revealed a large volume of official documents, some of them marked “confidential.”
Following an investigation, police arrested five people, including four prison guards and a police cadet, on suspicion of misconduct related to the removal of the documents.
Police believe most of the documents were removed between November and December 2022. Aristotelous and former deputy director Athina Demetriou have both since given testimony.
