Measures to address overcrowding, improve living conditions, and strengthen supervision at Nicosia central prisons will be taken, Justice Minister Constantinos Fitiris said on Saturday.

He was speaking after a meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides and in the wake of two deaths and a scathing EU report about conditions, all in the prison this week.

During the meeting, Fitiris briefed the president on the current situation at the central prisons, including the recent death of a 23-year-old Syrian inmate, Abdul Kader Almfalani.

The minister also provided an overview of long-standing challenges affecting prisoners and staff.

Fitiris assured the president of his determination to implement “swift, substantive, and comprehensive interventions,” in addition to actions already underway.

He said the priority is to adopt immediate, medium-term and long-term measures.

These include decongesting the prison, improving conditions for inmates and upgrading supervision and control.

The goal is to reduce criminal behaviour within the institution while ensuring compliance with national and international laws protecting the rights of prisoners, detainees and staff.

The Council of Europe’s committee for the prevention of torture warned of “serious problems” at Cyprus’ central prison in Nicosia in a report issued on Wednesday and said it had “grave concerns” over “the high levels of inter-prisoner violence” at the facility.

It followed a visit to the island in April and spoke of a “failure of prison staff to ensure the safety of those in custody” and said that this has been brought about in part thanks to a “chronic shortage of frontline officers”.

This shortage, it said, “has allowed stronger prisoner groups to dominate and impose informal punishments, undermining safety and order”.

Almfalani’s death was confirmed by police on Saturday.

It comes shortly after another inmate, a 35-year-old Egyptian national, was killed following a violent altercation with another prisoner.

Police arrested a 30-year-old inmate on suspicion of premeditated murder. He has been remanded in custody for eight days by the Nicosia district court.