Court rejects document disclosure request in Aristotelous classified files case

Nicosia, Cyprus. The Nicosia criminal court on Tuesday rejected a defence request for the release of documents and electronic files in the case involving former prison director Anna Aristotelous and seven other defendants over the alleged leaking of classified documents. The court said non-disclosure was necessary to protect the public interest.

Court decision

The court ruled that the documents and electronic files requested by the defence would not be released, describing their non-disclosure as “a necessary measure for the protection of public interest”.

Prosecution lawyer issue

Aristotelous’ lawyer, Chris Triantafyllides, said he would raise at the next hearing the involvement of prosecution lawyer Vasilis Bissas, citing Bissas’ alleged close ties to another defendant.

At a previous hearing, Bissas rejected Triantafyllides’ position, saying the legal service had been aware of his personal circumstances, including his ties with the defendants, when it approved his involvement in the case.

Charges and investigation

The eight defendants face charges including conspiracy to commit a felony, theft of state property involving 48,432 documents, theft of 370 architectural plans of the prison building, and theft of 431 other items, including digital discs and electronic devices.

The documents were found during a search of a prison warden’s home on April 10 last year. The search was conducted as part of an investigation into an alleged scheme involving a convict purchasing items from the prison canteen and selling them to other inmates at inflated prices.

It was alleged that the warden received a share of the profits in exchange for overlooking the activity.

Reports on removal of documents

Newspaper Politis reported at the time that the documents had been removed from the prison through an external staircase near the administrative offices and hidden in cloth bags. It also reported that prisons department vehicles were used on some occasions to transport the documents from the prison.

Aristotelous suspension

Aristotelous was suspended from her role at the defence ministry in June last year. Triantafyllides said at the time that she had been made a “scapegoat”.

He also referred to a “cannibalistic operation” that he said had “eroded the presumption of innocence” and accused the government of “character assassination”.