Former president Nicos Anastasiades on Tuesday issued an 8,400-word defence of his actions before and during his term in office, pushing back on allegations levelled at him in the anti-corruption authority’s report into the book Mafia State, which was written by his former aide and journalist Makarios Drousiotis.

The statement followed the same points as a press conference he had given over the matter in June, going through the anti-corruption authority’s report chapter by chapter, outlining the accusations levelled against him as he saw them, and offering his own version of events.

“From what has been presented, it is clear that the inspection officers and members of the authority, in the performance of their duties, violated essential legal rules which govern any investigation, especially considering the role and powers of the institution, as well as the nature and seriousness of the complaints it is called upon to investigate,” he said.

Additionally, he stressed that “what I want to conclude … is that the independence and integrity of institutions is not achieved by adapting their verdict to that of courts of public opinion and the prevailing atmosphere”.

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Instead, he said, it must be achieved by “a brave and objective view of events”, so as to “not allow the contamination of the law or the tarnishing of the names and, more broadly, [not allow] the belief that the rule of law is being sacrificed by those who were called upon to protect it, for the sake of temporary popularity”.

He said that the anti-corruption authority’s report “fell far short of expectations for an investigation of such scope and public interest”.

“Instead of the inspection officers’ findings being the product of a thorough study and constituting a conclusion reached by the anti-corruption authority, the announcement is limited to the references to the findings of the officers, which … are the product of unforgivable negligence,” he said.

He added that “the very serious accusations” made against him by Drousiotis remain “the product of malicious allegations, since they are not based on any testimony or have been refuted by the evidence”.

“Equally unacceptable and contrary to every principle of law is the unprecedented failure of the inspection officers to present before [me] or to give [me] the right to be heard about everything which led them to the conclusions and the recommendations for possible criminal charges,” he said.

He had in June lambasted “smears” and “toxicity” on the part of his detractors in the aftermath of the report’s publishing.

“Some people did not need the [report’s] findings to come to a verdict. They have had their verdicts for years. After the announcement, there’s was smearing, toxicity, and character assassinations, and they turned the inventor of the ‘Sandy’ case into a hero,” he said at the time.

He also accused his detractors of “violating the presumption of innocence”, saying that this is a “constitutional right”, and that despite this, “some set up courts of public opinion and convicted the ‘guilty’ based on the balance of probability”.