Nicosia, Cyprus. Questions continued on Friday over the selection of Australian lawyer Gabrielle McIntyre to investigate allegations made by journalist Makarios Drousiotis, with media reports focusing on the appointment process and possible professional links to Drousiotis’ lawyer, Leto Cariolou.
Reports focus on selection process
News website Ink questioned whether McIntyre was personally selected by transparency commissioner Harris Poyiadjis or whether the decision was made collectively by the anti-corruption authority. It reported that Poyiadjis had “refused to answer” and had said the decision was taken “two and a half years ago”. The Cyprus Mail said it had contacted Poyiadjis and was awaiting a response.
Call for explanations
Ink said that, given Cariolou’s legal representation of Drousiotis and the significance of the investigation to public life in Cyprus, it was reasonable to request full explanations regarding the process through which McIntyre was appointed.
Cariolou’s representation of Drousiotis
Cariolou represented Drousiotis in a libel case brought against him by Victor Papadopoulos, who served as deputy government spokesman and presidential press office director under former president Nicos Anastasiades and now serves as presidential press office director under President Nikos Christodoulides.
She also represented Drousiotis in the Drousiotis v Cyprus case, in which he took the Republic of Cyprus to the European Court of Human Rights in 2022 after the Supreme Court found him liable for defamation.
Professional backgrounds of Cariolou and McIntyre
According to Sigma Live, Cariolou, in addition to representing Drousiotis, had worked as a legal officer for the United Nations’ international residual mechanism for criminal tribunals.
In that role, she worked on international criminal cases including the war crimes trials of Bosnian Serb officer Ratko Mladic, former Republika Srpska president Radovan Karadzic, and Rwandan politician Augustin Ngirabatware, who was tried for inciting the Rwandan genocide.
McIntyre served as head legal counsel at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and at the international residual mechanism for criminal tribunals. She also worked on the trials of Mladic, Karadzic and Ngirabatware.
Timeline of cases cited
Ngirabatware was convicted in 2012, Karadzic in 2016, and Mladic in 2019.