With an announcement, through her lawyers is expected to respond within the day, Anna Aristotelous to the statement-column issued on Friday by the Legal Service and which referred to an uncontrolled and extremely dangerous situation in the Central Prison, the use of drugs and mobile phones by convicts.
The Legal Service's announcement came following the findings of the four criminal investigators who investigated the possible commission of criminal offences of transport and use of mobile phones within a penitentiary institution and the trafficking and use of drugs within prisons, as well as what followed the murder of Turkish Cypriot Cidan on 27 October last year.
"The report of the four criminal investigators was handed over to the Legal Service on 4/11/2022. The investigation, the testimony they collected and the conclusions of the criminal investigators are clearly not for public disclosure. However, without disclosing any details of the criminal investigators' report, we are obliged to take a public position since we note with great concern that, through the investigation, the findings of the court decisions and information/testimony held by the Police on repeated importation, transfer and use of mobile phones by prisoners in the Central Prison are confirmed. This appears to have been achieved with the assistance of some members of Prison staff. Similarly, the pattern of importation, trafficking and use of drugs within the Prison is confirmed, again with the assistance of some members of Prison staff. This in itself exposes the whole structure of the prison system to very serious risks that cause tremors in the whole system of Criminal Justice," the Legal Service's statement said, among other things.
"Attempt to deconstruct"
Since Saturday, the Director of the Central Prison and one of her lawyers Pambos Ioannidis, in response to the statement, have been talking about an attempt to deconstruct Anna Aristotelous, citing the complaints she made against Michael Katsunotos.
"Our targeting is obvious and only the naive would not realize that it is directly related to our complaint against a senior police officer for corruption. The barrage of criminal investigations, hours of criminal interrogations and edited reports on a channel immediately after our complaint cannot be considered a coincidence. A complaint was officially filed on June 20 and is still being studied, while in just 21 days the second investigation ordered under the alibi of the TV report, with the testimonial material we delivered and the evidence that again arrived at the police completely by accident after our complaint, was studied," Aristotelous said on Saturday.
"They have not acted on the Aimylianides conclusion, which was way ahead in time and results in findings of criminal responsibility, because it obviously does not serve the intended purpose," her lawyer said for his part and called it a "black day for democracy, the credibility and dignity of independent institutions" and a "downfall".
Within the day, however, announcements are expected from the prison administration, which remains to be seen whether the Legal Service will respond.
"We intend to comment with our lawyers in detail on all the offensive and in many places unfounded or even threatening reports in the Legal Service's statement, and we will do so with facts and actual facts and not with selective quotes and misinterpretations of them as was done through the Legal Service's statement. Also, our intention is to inform public opinion about pending complaints, which may be directly relevant," the Director of the Central Prison noted on Saturday.
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
