Court documents indicate Anastasiades was informed of Katsounotos allegations
Letters dated April and May 2022 before the Nicosia criminal court indicate that former president Nicos Anastasiades was informed of allegations concerning Michalis Katsounotos before a June complaint.
Nicosia, Cyprus. Letters sent to former president Nicos Anastasiades in April and May 2022 indicate that he was informed of allegations concerning deputy police chief Michalis Katsounotos before a formal complaint was made in June, according to documents before the Nicosia criminal court.
The letters are among 392 documents whose disclosure has been disputed in the trial concerning alleged central prisons documents.
Content of the letters
The letters contain information about Katsounotos’ communications with a convicted prisoner and allegations that he sought compromising material against former prisons director Anna Aristotelous and her deputy, Athena Demetriou.
The material is considered significant because Anastasiades publicly denied at the time that he had been informed about the allegations.
Public statements
After reports in June 2022 that he was aware of the case, Anastasiades described them as “fake news” and said he was tired of dealing with “the fake news of some inventive journalists”.
He also said that, once informed about the matter, he instructed the justice minister and the chief of police to act.
Investigation
The allegations emerged after Aristotelous reported that Katsounotos, then head of the police drug squad, had been communicating with a convicted prisoner and seeking damaging material concerning her and Demetriou.
Katsounotos was suspended while an independent criminal investigation was conducted. The investigation, led by lawyer Achilleas Emilianides, examined whether Katsounotos and the prisoner had committed criminal offences.
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