Prison wardens staged a 24-hour strike and rallied outside the Justice Ministry on Friday, threatening to shut down Cyprus’s prison if the government does not drop disciplinary proceedings against a colleague and open dialogue on working conditions.
Around 100 members of the Isotita union gathered from 8am, carrying banners and drums. Their demands centre on ending the disciplinary case against Giorgos Maltezos, the union’s press spokesperson, who faces proceedings after publicly raising concerns about overcrowding, understaffing and drug use inside the prison. The union is also demanding dialogue on operational protocols it says management has imposed unilaterally.
Isotita board president Prodromos Christofi told those gathered that what was happening to Maltezos was “an orchestrated, vengeful and immoral witch-hunt against anyone who dares to tell the truth.”
He said Maltezos had done nothing more than speak publicly about overcrowding, understaffing and the presence of crystal methamphetamine inside the wings, which wardens were being forced to inhale passively. Christofi said the Justice Minister had responded by mocking the claims and distorting Maltezos’s words to imply wardens were permitting drug use in front of them. He challenged the minister to work a single shift on the wings.
Christofi said Maltezos had raised his concerns in December 2025 and was transferred to a different office — directly under the head of the PASYDY branch — in January 2026. He said the transfer was intended to silence Maltezos. Disciplinary proceedings followed the day after complaints were filed.
Christos Kyriakou, a member of the wardens’ branch council, warned that the union’s next move would be to shut the prison down. “We will close it at any cost, even if it unfortunately means coming into confrontation with colleagues and police officers. We are determined, we will not stop,” he said.
Kyriakou said the current ratio of one warden to 60 or 70 inmates was dangerous for both staff and prisoners. He said wardens were not opposed to all the new protocols, but had asked to be consulted before their introduction and had been ignored. “Yes, management decides — that is logical — but they are obliged to hear our view. We have a democracy, not a dictatorship,” he said.
Warden Ioanna Chatzimichail said the union had sent numerous letters to both management and the minister without response. “We are not just prison wardens and these are not just inmates. I am a mother of two children, another colleague is a father of three. We need safety,” she said. She warned that if the disciplinary case against Maltezos was not dropped, the same treatment awaited any union spokesperson who spoke out publicly.
Banners at the protest read: “We demand an independent director, no more army and police,” “No to arbitrariness,” “No to the militarisation of the prison — we are a correctional service” and “One warden for 70 inmates — criminal irresponsibility.”
The union said it would convene a general assembly in the coming period to decide on next steps if its demands are not met, and has not ruled out closing the prison.
(information from CNA)