Two Nicosia municipalities called on Thursday for the immediate revocation of the government’s decision to locate the new central prisons in Ayios Sozomenos, arguing the site was chosen without adequate consultation.

The joint statement from Dali and Latsia-Yeri municipalities, though acknowledging the need for “modern infrastructure”, called for a project of this scale to be sited only after “a comprehensive and scientifically documented study”.

The municipalities, whose boundaries lay adjacent to the abandoned village, asserted that Ayios Sozomenos already hosts a plethora of industrial and agricultural activity, including livestock waste treatment facilities, quarries, pig farms, alongside an EAC overhead power line running through the area.

They further reminded the government that the site falls within land earmarked for livestock farming under a national plan to rebuild the sector, a factor they said “cannot be ignored” in assessing its suitability.

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Representing a combined population of around 60,000 residents, the two municipalities said local authorities could not be excluded from a decision “with such consequences for the wider region”.

They called for a halt to further action on the site until local authorities and affected communities are “properly consulted” and urged the state to examine alternative locations.

The call follows the justice ministry’s announcement on Tuesday that it had dropped plans for Mathiatis in favour of Ayios Sozomenos, a move it said was based on “cost and time criteria.”

The ministry said Mathiatis would have needed substantial new infrastructure, including roads, sewage, water and electricity networks, while Ayios Sozomenos has access to these nearby, cutting both cost and construction time.

Justice Minister Costas Fitiris had announced the Mathiatis site in March, citing its proximity to the capital and its status as state land.

Construction was expected to begin next year, with completion within five years on a €300 million facility designed to house 1,500 inmates.

That proposal drew opposition from the Mathiatis heritage protection group, which argued the area was environmentally sensitive and culturally significant.

Mathiatis community leader Theodoros Tsatsou had initially criticised the plan, saying residents had not been properly briefed, and pointed to existing pressures on the village from two army camps and land under Turkish Cypriot deeds.

Ayios Sozomenos, a village abandoned following intercommunal violence, lies near the Green Line and contains a Byzantine cave chapel, the unfinished Latin church of Saint Mamas, and mud brick ruins left by its former Turkish Cypriot residents.