The Independent Anti-Corruption Authority is set to publish a damning report attributing criminal liability to more than ten people in connection with the high-profile “Mafia State” investigation, Phileleftheros has learned.
The report is the product of a two-year investigation drawing on 800 pieces of evidence and 150 witness statements, and is described by sources as a bombshell that will fundamentally shift the landscape of the case and open the door to criminal prosecutions. The dossier compiled by the authority’s investigators is approximately 3,000 pages long.
The cost of the investigation exceeded €1 million. Those implicated are described as people who either held institutional roles or served as associates and state officials, and who are alleged to have had direct involvement, assistance or a role in implementing decisions that fell under the authority’s scrutiny.
The background
First published in late 2022, “Mafia State” is authored by investigative journalist Makarios Drousiotis. The book portrays Cyprus as a systemically corrupt state and levels allegations at former president Nicos Anastasiades and other senior officials, including claims of how people commented to the former president abolished the rule of law and accusations that Anastasiades facilitated the affairs of Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev in exchange for favours.
Drousiotis also purports to have documented a clandestine network of politicians, lawyers and business figures involved in rigged trials, and alleges that state-sponsored wiretapping and electronic surveillance were used against him after he investigated these corruption networks.
Drousiotis’s book was partly based on his time as an adviser to Anastasiades during the first two years of his presidency from 2013 to 2023.
Anastasiades has rejected all allegations and has sued Drousiotis for defamation.
Anastasiades is suing Drousiotis for more than €2 million, claiming damages for defamation, and has demanded the books be taken out of publication. Drousiotis’s lawyer has accused Anastasiades of initiating a strategic lawsuit against public participation — a SLAPP — in an attempt to silence him.
Today’s procedure
Before the report is made public, Transparency Commissioner Haris Poyiadjis will personally telephone Anastasiades to formally notify him of the findings concerning him.
The remaining named individuals will then be informed by personal email before the report is released to the public — a procedure designed to ensure those under scrutiny learn of the findings directly rather than through the media.What happens nextOnce published, the report passes to the Attorney General.
However, legal sources note that senior figures in the Law Office were appointed by Anastasiades and served as members of his Council of Ministers, raising questions about whether they should recuse themselves from any decision-making. It is possible that a team of Law Office officials could be assigned to evaluate the material instead.
The report must ultimately be referred either to police for criminal investigation, to appointed criminal investigators, or both.
Read more:
Cyprus corruption watchdog closes in on Mafia State verdict