Anastasiades rejects Mafia State claims, targets Drousiotis and Authority

Local corruptionIndependent Authority against Corruptionmakarios drousiotisNicos AnastasiadesTop News Anastasiades rejects Mafia State claims, targets Drousiotis and Authority Anastasiades Rejects Mafia State Claims, Targets Drousiotis And Authority Relevant News Anastasiades rejects Mafia State claims, targets Drousiotis and Authority 26 August 2026 Cyprus’s 900 million euro surplus expected to buffer inflation impact 26 August 2026 Unions and employers race against the clock on pension reform 26 August 2026 Fanis Makrides 26 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Former President Nicos Anastasiades has again rejected the allegations against him in the Mafia State affair, issuing a new written statement running to more than 20 pages and 8,000 words that takes direct aim at author and investigator Makarios Drousiotis and the Independent Authority against Corruption. Anastasiades has already addressed the Authority’s findings twice, in June, while an investigation by an independent team of criminal investigators appointed in July remains ongoing. Despite this, he has shown no sign of abandoning his declared effort to clear his name. His clear aim is to discredit the book’s author, while he also argues, with specific references, that the Anti-Corruption Authority failed to do its job properly, influenced by the surrounding climate of opinion. He made no secret of his irritation with what he called “followers of populism and nihilism” and “courts of public opinion.” On Drousiotis specifically, Anastasiades repeats his position that the claims made in the book “Mafia State” have been fully refuted. On the Anti-Corruption Authority, he alleges, among other things, that it not only fails to adequately highlight this but actively downplays it. In the early sections of his written statement, Anastasiades states: “Despite the fact that the Authority rejected in their entirety the author’s claims of corruption through unjust enrichment, misappropriation of money or property, or any actions damaging to the Republic of Cyprus, both the author and the followers of nihilism, using the Authority’s ‘findings’, distort the truth, insisting on the verdict of the courts of public opinion.” He cites the Authority’s own report to support his position. Paragraph 30 states: “It is important, and must be stressed with particular emphasis, that the standard of proof applied in investigative proceedings such as this one is the balance of probabilities, as opposed to the standard applied in criminal cases, which is proof beyond reasonable doubt.” Paragraph 80 adds: “It is further emphasised that other allegations made in the book which are not contained in this Report have not been proven even to the minimum degree required in investigative proceedings.” Anastasiades goes on to lay out his position in detail, chapter by chapter, arguing that the book’s claims are refuted throughout. Among other things, he said the seven suggestions made by inspection officers regarding possible offences by the former President, based on the balance of probabilities standard, “are due either to an incorrect chronological linking of events, or to legally unfounded conclusions, or to the author’s testimony being of doubtful reliability.” Anastasiades’s statement also addresses the “Sandy” affair and Drousiotis’s public statements on it, over which Drousiotis faces court charges of publishing false news, circulating a forged document and harassment. Anastasiades asks: “Why did the Chairman of the Authority consider it necessary to issue a statement on 20/04/2026, clarifying that the investigations against the author over the ‘Sandy’ fiction do not in any way affect the investigation into the content of the book ‘Mafia State’ and Nicos Anastasiades?” He also argues that, following the rejection of Drousiotis’s claims, the Authority should, under the legislation governing its operation, examine Drousiotis himself, citing Article 22. Anastasiades further argues that the Authority’s failure to respond to a series of statements in which Drousiotis expressed absolute certainty about the investigation’s outcome is equally questionable. He then lists a series of statements Drousiotis made in connection with the “Sandy” case, which the author linked to the Authority’s then-upcoming announcements on the Mafia State findings. Anastasiades also addresses reports about a relationship between Drousiotis’s lawyer, Leto Cariolou, and Gabrielle Louise McIntyre, the head of the Authority’s investigators, stating: “I want to make clear that I do not endorse the reports (…) but their silence over what came to light, and the Authority’s total silence over Drousiotis’s statements, raises questions for anyone, in good or bad faith, who invokes the principle of full transparency.” The investigators’ report attributes possible criminal liability to 15 people, former officials and private individuals, including former President Nicos Anastasiades. Anastasiades is under investigation for trading in influence in three instances, the felony of abuse of power in one instance, and misdemeanour-level abuse of power or attempted commission of a criminal offence in three instances. 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