Nicosia, Cyprus. A Nicosia criminal court on Monday granted prosecutors another month to review material and decide what can be shared with defence lawyers in a case involving the theft of thousands of documents from the central prisons.
Defendants and charges
On trial are former prisons director Anna Aristotelous, former vice director Athena Demetriou, five prison wardens, and a former prisons employee who is now a policeman.
The indictment includes conspiracy to commit a felony, abuse of power, violation of official confidentiality, personal data processing offenses, theft by a civil servant, violation of the security rules for classified documents, and illegal possession of property.
Discovery stage and access to material
The eight defendants have yet to enter a plea, with their lawyers seeking access to all material before their clients plead innocent or guilty.
The trial remains in the discovery stage, the pre-trial process in which opposing parties exchange information, evidence, and witness lists.
State prosecutors have not yet shared all documents with the defence, citing that about 2,500 of the 48,000 are classified or sensitive.
Document trove and investigation
The trove was found in April 2025 at the home of a chief prison warden, with approximately 48,000 documents discovered during a police search linked to a separate investigation.
Many documents are marked “confidential” and “secret” and are believed to have been removed illegally from the prisons between November and December 2022.
Aristotelous was serving as governor of the central prisons during the period of the alleged removal, before leaving the post in late December 2022.
Among the sensitive items cited by prosecutors are architectural schematics of the prisons and confidential communications between attorneys and their clients.
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