Anti-corruption authority to release findings on alleged legal service conflicts

The anti-corruption authority will publish findings regarding conflicts of interest within the legal service, it was revealed on Thursday.

The allegations against the legal service include a slew of complaints, up to six, sources told the Cyprus Mail, about the Deputy Attorney-General Savvas Angelides.

Claims against Angelides are currently under examination by a team hired on a short-term contract basis by the anti-corruption authority.

The team comprises two British experts, George Campanellas and Tanveer Qureshi, and Cypriot lawyer George Liasides.

The anti-corruption authority discussed three of the allegations on Thursday and is expected to issue a statement on the findings by Friday.

Officials of the authority have studied the report from the contracted team over the previous days. Today, in their meeting, they adopted the findings and reportedly finalized the text of the communication, which will be made public within the next day.

One of the cases involving Angelides relates to him suspending a prosecution against a person who was a former client of his law firm – suggesting a possible conflict of interest for the deputy AG.

Angelides’ law firm represented the person in question until 2021, when Angelides was already serving as deputy AG – a position he was appointed to in June 2020.

The person is currently being held at the central prisons, awaiting trial on the charge of attempted murder in a separate case.

The allegations were previously forwarded to the authority via the audit service, prompting Angelides to lash out earlier in the year.

Auditor-General Odysseas Michaelides forwarded complaints concerning the handling of two cases involving three persons. The investigators from the UK have drawn up three findings, one for each case.

Earlier this year, spokesman for the audit office Marios Petrides confirmed to the state broadcaster that four complaints relating to the attorney-general’s office were sent to them.

Petrides said that the audit office received and forwarded to the anti-corruption authority another complaint relating to allegations about Angelides’ conduct concerning the case of the Israeli ‘spy van’.

Another case related to the ‘abuse of power’ in terms of the attorney-general’s office suspending prosecutions. This was the case pertaining to the drug squad.And yet another case was “of a similar nature:”

Petrides said the audit office acted merely as an “intermediary” for the complaints, and that it does not itself make accusations against anyone.

Angelides denied any wrongdoing, noting that he and his colleagues at the attorney-general’s office work “within the law, honestly, objectively and professionally.”

His outburst came after the allegations were making the rounds on the internet. Allegedly, Angelides had served as the attorney for someone who was a ‘person of interest’ for the police’s drug squad. In 2022 Angelides stayed a prosecution against this person. The name of drug squad chief Michalis Katsounotos was mentioned in this context.

This may be linked to the affair where the attorney-general’s office decided against bringing charges against Katsounotos, whom the former prisons director Anna Aristotelous accused of spying on her and trying to frame her. Subsequently the attorney-general’s office also refused to give the green light to two private criminal prosecutions which Aristotelous’ lawyers wanted to file against Katsounotos.