Ex-prison chiefs cry foul over inmate’s late-night transfer claims

Two former senior prison officials have rejected allegations from an inmate who claims she was repeatedly transferred to a prison office for hours after lockdown, describing the revelations as retaliation for their complaint against a police officer.

Anna Aristotelous, former director of the Central Prisons, and Athina Demetriou, a former senior official, issued immediate responses after the inmate’s allegations emerged, despite media reports not specifying that the claims related to their tenure.

The inmate gave a lengthy written statement under strict secrecy to investigators from the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters, according to information obtained by Phileleftheros.

She claimed that during the period when Aristotelous and Demetriou ran the prison, she was transferred on instructions from a person she named to a specific office during hours when the wing was closed and inmates confined to their cells.

The woman gave three successive statements detailing alleged special treatment at the correctional facility.

She claimed she was moved from the women’s wing to a particular office where she remained for several hours, even after wings closed for the night at 9pm or 10pm at weekends, sometimes until morning hours. Prison regulations require wings to close at those times.

Investigators have seized various prison documents including diaries and logbooks as evidence and begun taking statements from staff members who knew what was happening but did not speak out.

The inmate describes events that occurred inside the prison, and provides details about what followed after her release until her return with a new conviction.

The woman has been placed in a witness protection programme and moved out of the prison for obvious reasons following her testimony, according to sources.

Investigators are evaluating and attempting to substantiate her detailed account point by point, and there is reportedly testimony from a former prison staff member who made a related complaint previously but did not pursue it.

Chris Triantafyllidis, representing Aristotelous, said his client never knew of such an incident, would never have allowed such an incident to occur with her knowledge, and categorically rejects such actions.

“My client watches with astonishment the developments of recent days in which the prison is mentioned, and she desires no involvement in these whatsoever, regardless of whether perhaps some people, for their own purposes, are deliberately trying to implicate her and thereby harm her,” Triantafyllidis said.

He added that his client has absolute confidence in Cypriot justice and will protect her legal rights to the end through every lawful means.

Lito Kariolou, representing Demetriou, issued a sharper statement referring to fresh retaliation and an attempt to undermine her client’s credibility and integrity through orchestrated media reports based on fresh waves of selective leaks to serve other purposes.

Kariolou argued that the fresh revelations concern unfounded claims already investigated by independent criminal investigator Achilleas Aemilianides in 2022, who found nothing reprehensible against her client. She called on the Legal Service to publish the findings so the truth can shine through.

Kariolou’s statement also cited testimony from convicts claiming the inmate expressed her intention to cooperate with investigators and do whatever was asked to secure more favourable treatment in her pending cases.

The statement emphasised that the inmate was never transferred outside the prison, and that systematic targeting of a person due to previous corruption complaints and the instrumentalisation of criminal proceedings to exert pressure are practices incompatible with the rule of law.

Both former officials attributed the developments to retaliation for their 2022 complaint against a police official.