Nicosia criminal court to review classified prison documents

The Nicosia criminal court has ruled that it will personally inspect 2,900 documents to determine if they should be classified as secret or confidential. This follows a trial involving eight defendants, including former prison director Anna Aristotelous and former vice-director Athena Demetriou, as well as five prison wardens and a former employee currently serving as a police officer. The defendants face charges including conspiracy to commit a felony, abuse of power, and theft of state property, specifically 48,432 documents, 370 architectural plans, and 431 digital devices. The materials were discovered in April 2025 at the residence of a chief prison warden. Defense lawyers argued that they require access to all evidence to ensure a fair trial, while the court rejected a request from Demetriou’s defense to terminate the case for abuse of process. The trial remains in the discovery stage, and a new hearing is scheduled for April 24 at 10:00 am. The documents were allegedly removed from the central prisons between November and December 2022.