Anti-Corruption Authority rejects ‘Mafia State’ claims, Anastasiades renews attack

Local corruptionNicos AnastasiadesTop News Anti-Corruption Authority rejects ‘Mafia State’ claims, Anastasiades renews attack Anastasiades 1536x865 Relevant News Limassol-Paphos motorway lane closures planned for three nights this week 25 August 2026 Noticeable cool-down, isolated storms forecast for Saturday 25 August 2026 Anti-Corruption Authority rejects ‘Mafia State’ claims, Anastasiades renews attack 25 August 2026 newsroom 25 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Former President Nicos Anastasiades has accused Cyprus’s Independent Anti-Corruption Authority of adjusting its verdict to match “popular courts” and the prevailing public mood, in an article he sent to media outlets. He also accused journalist Makarios Droushiotis and what he called “nihilist supporters” of distorting the truth, after the Authority rejected in full all allegations of corruption through illicit enrichment, misappropriation of money or property, or damaging actions against the Republic of Cyprus. Anastasiades said: “After two and a half years of investigation, at a cost of €1.5 million, with 150 witnesses heard, and evidence submitted from 41 legal and government departments totalling 793 documents, “the defamatory claims made by the author of the book ‘Mafia State’, concerning the alleged acquisition of any financial benefit and/or any self-serving act either for Mr Anastasiades’s benefit or to the detriment of the public purse by the former president, collapse and are rejected by the Authority as unfounded and legally unsupported.” Points he says the Authority refuted The former president listed the points he says the investigation refuted. These include the book’s chapters on the “Rybolovlev law”, the subchapter on “manipulation of Justice”, the subchapter on Rybolovleva’s arrest, and the subchapter titled “the oligarch demands explanations”. They also include the “plan to devour Costas Clerides”, the purchase by the former president’s wife of a plot of land from the Archbishopric, the alleged misappropriation of a Focus contribution, and naturalisations and travel. Further items include the appointment of Vladimir Stralkovski to Bank of Cyprus, the alleged seizure of a large area of Turkish Cypriot property, the acquisition of Bank of Cyprus through Stralkovski to turn it into a tool of Putin’s, the rejection of the first Eurogroup agreement following instructions from Putin, and an alleged pursuit of control over Bank of Cyprus to protect Russian clients. Attacks on the Authority Anastasiades called it “regrettable, unfortunate, if not unacceptable, that the inspection officers, as well as the five members of the Anti-Corruption Authority, succumbing to the prevailing atmosphere created by the popular courts and the nihilists, proceeded to findings attributing to the former president the possible commission of offences on the balance of probabilities.” He said the Authority’s findings fell short of what he expected. He wrote that “rather than being the product of thorough study by the inspection officers and constituting a finding of the Anti-Corruption Authority, the announcement is limited to references to the officers’ findings, which […] are the product of unforgivable negligence.” His article also referred to what he called tragic errors by the inspection officers that led to mistaken conclusions about possible criminal offences. He also criticised the Authority for not explicitly stating, chapter by chapter, which of the author’s claims had not been proven to the required standard and were therefore “either the product of fiction or defamatory statements.” He further criticised the Authority for not commenting on the author’s credibility, which he said it should have done. He also raised the fact that the Authority did not investigate Droushiotis over whether he had committed offences under Article 22 of the law establishing the Anti-Corruption Authority. He said: “The seven suggestions by the inspection officers of possible offences by the former president, based on the balance of probabilities, are due either to an erroneous chronological linking of events, legally unfounded conclusions, or the questionable credibility of the author’s testimony.” He repeated his claim that the inspection officers “failed to put before the former president, or give him the right to be heard on, everything that led them to their conclusions and the seven suggestions of possible offences.” He said, however, that he was not attributing “bad faith” to either the inspection officers or the chairman and members of the Authority. “What I do attribute to them is a lack of strong will to resist the prevailing atmosphere created by the popular judges, the fiction-writers and the character assassins,” he said. 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