Appellate court upholds ruling in Haravgi libel case

On April 9, 2026, the Appellate Court of Cyprus unanimously dismissed an appeal filed by Renos Kyriakides, thereby upholding a lower court decision regarding a 2013 libel lawsuit. The case stemmed from an article published in the newspaper Haravgi, which linked Kyriakides to the inner core of EOKA B. Although the court acknowledged that the publication was defamatory, it ruled that the newspaper was protected under the qualified privilege defense as stipulated in Article 21(1)(a) of the Civil Wrongs Law. The court determined that the publication addressed a matter of public interest and that there was no evidence of bad faith by the newspaper or journalist Kypros Kourtellaris. While the court noted that evidence regarding the plaintiff's connection to EOKA B was not sufficient to verify the truth of the claims, it concluded that the defendants did not know the information was false at the time of publication. The court relied on testimony regarding the plaintiff's activities between 1971 and 1974. Consequently, the appellate court ordered Kyriakides to pay 1,900 euros in legal costs plus VAT to the publisher, Tilegrafos Ltd, and the journalist involved. The original 2013 article had addressed alleged irregularities at the George Grivas Digenis Foundation.