The cabinet suspended former head of the central prisons Anna Aristotelous from her present post at the defence ministry on Wednesday over the classified state documents found in the residence of the prisons’ chief warden.

Her lawyer, Christos Triantafyllides, said Aristotelous was being used as a “scapegoat” and that she would be appealing the decision.

Aristotelous and the chief warden, Athena Demetriou, had requested their transfer from the prisons to other public service postings last year, listing a number of reasons and raising security issues.

Triantafyllides spoke of a “cannibalistic operation” eroding the presumption of innocence and ultimately character assassination, while Michalis Katsounotos, who as then drug squad chief, had attempted to secure damaging footage of the two women, instead of being prosecuted, was promoted to deputy chief of police.

After Aristotelous left the post at the prisons, she had been appointed acting permanent secretary at the defence ministry and Humanitarian Commissioner.

As a result of Thursday’s suspension, interior ministry permanent secretary Elikkos Elia will be temporarily assuming her post at the defence ministry.

The suspension also impacts her position as commissioner.

“The cabinet, taking into account the content of the letters by the Cyprus police dated June 18 and 25, 2025, and having been briefed by the defence minister about the duties Anna Aristotelous is carrying out as acting permanent secretary of the defence ministry, decided to submit a recommendation to the civil service committee for reasons of public interest for the termination of the stand-in appointment of Aristotelous at the defence ministry as of June 25, 2025.”

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said this recommendation also affects Aristotelous’ duties as head of humanitarian affairs.

As far as Athena Demetriou is concerned, Letymbiotis said this was up to the Law Office, where she had been transferred on March 22, 2023.

Sources told Philenews that currently there was no reason or intention to recommend she be suspended.

Aristotelous had been appointed head of humanitarian affairs on June 6, 2023, and had been acting permanent secretary of the defence ministry since November 1, 2024.

Meanwhile, investigators are compiling the case regarding the classified documents.

The cabinet decision to recommend Aristotelous’ suspension in the middle of an investigation into the leaking of classified documents riled Triantafyllides, who issued a statement in which he referred to a “cannibalistic operation”, targeting an institutional bias against his client.

He said Aristotelous and Demetriou – both his clients – were being used as “scapegoats in an underground war”, which was now being waged in broad daylight.

“There should be no doubt that they will both defend themselves, if necessary, with all legal means at their disposal and not with ‘underground’ allegations leading to their outright unjustifiable and unfounded targeting,” he said.

In May 2025, four prison wardens and a female police cadet were arrested in connection with an ongoing investigation into documents found in the residence of a prison warden in early April.

Among the little information available, the material found in the prison warden’s home is said to have included documents relating to the 2018-2022 period, architectural schematics of the central prisons, original documents, copies of documents with authentic signatures, and files on prison inmates.

The suspects were later released as “no data emerged which would justify their further detention”.

Police continued to evaluate and analyse the documents found, with there said to be more than 300,000 pages worth of material. Reports also said that 42 hard drives containing CCTV footage from the central prison were found as part of the police’s investigation into the case, along with digital discs and electronic data storage units.

The bulk of the material is believed to have been taken out of the central prison between November and December 2022.

Triantafyllides also mentioned deputy chief of police Katsounotos, who, instead of being prosecuted or at least sent to a disciplinary board, was “rewarded and promoted”.

This, the lawyer said, indicated the selective and targeted approach towards Aristotelous, which contravenes the principles of equality and justice.

After a period of “apparent stillness”, Katsounotos’ promotion “seems to have given the impression that my clients deserved the treatment they received”.

Triantafyllides added that his clients were called in to testify and some points were “selectively leaked” to the press, giving false impressions, “for the purpose of tarnishing, completely eroding the presumption of innocence and ultimately character assassination”.

Following the described situation, Aristotelous and Demetriou chose to remain silent.

In July 2022, Aristotelous and Demetriou asked to be transferred from their positions after the deputy attorney general announced investigations into the prisons.

The first investigation was to delve into allegations made by Aristotelous that Katsounotos was colluding with an inmate to secure damaging material of her in an attempt to oust her from the position.

The other saw a team appointed by the deputy attorney general investigate allegations of drug and mobile phone use in prison.

In December 2022, Aristotelous and Demetriou announced their departure from their posts at the central prisons following the attorney-general’s decision not to prosecute Katsounotos amid the corruption investigation on the prisons.

In January 2023, Aristotelous and Demetriou filed criminal charges against Katsounotos who, they claimed, attempted to secure damaging footage of them.

Katsounotos had been an object of controversy in recent years, having refused to speak to the anti-corruption authority after being called on by them as part of an investigation into deputy attorney-general Savvas Angelides’ alleged conflicts of interests.

At the time, the legal experts, two British barristers and one Cypriot lawyer, suggested that Katsounotos’ refusal to speak may have made him criminally liable, but the legal service refused to initiate proceedings against him.