Prisons probe report handed to attorney-general

Four criminal investigators tasked with investigating claims of drug pushing and mobile phone use in the prisons turned their report into the attorney-general on Friday.

According to a post on social media by Attorney-General Giorgos Savvides, the report was handed to him on Friday afternoon.

“The report is accompanied with a voluminous number of testimonials. It will be evaluated, and decisions will be made on further handling the situation,” he said.

The four investigators looking into these claims are separate from another report filed on relating to allegations and counter-allegations between the central prisons’ director and the head of the drugs squad, Ykan.

These four investigators, Michalakis Christodoulou, Nikos Theodorou, Agamemnon Demetriou, and Michalis Thoma, were appointed by assistant attorney general Savvas Angelides.

Daily Politis reported that from the findings of the report there does not seem to be any crime committed on the matter of drug dealing and mobile phone use in the prisons.

The previous report, regarding the allegations and counter-allegations between Prisons Director Anna Aristotelous and head of the drug squad Michalis Katsounotos, was handed to Savvides back in September by Achilleas Emilianides, who was appointed as independent investigator into the matter.

The affair broke in mid-June when Aristotelous alleged that a senior police officer – later revealed to be Katsounotos – was colluding with an inmate to secure damaging footage of her and her deputy.

That led to a series of investigations.

The first, ordered by the attorney-general, is much narrower in its scope and focuses on allegations made by Aristotelous.

A second investigation was deemed necessary after the courts found that a man behind bars – serving life sentences for murder – was the ringleader of two attempted murder attacks, having used a mobile phone while in prison to organise crime.

The deputy attorney general’s office also cited “recent reports” which allege rampant drug use inside the prisons.

Aristotelous and the unit’s senior officer Athina Demetriou asked to be transferred from their positions a day after the second investigation was announced.

There have been claims that alleged illegalities – drug and phone use, among others – continued long after Aristotelous took charge of the prisons.

In statement in September, issued by his lawyer, Katsounotos said that although his suspension was now over he would take a leave of absence until the attorney-general reaches a decision on the matter.