Authority avoids clear answer about lawyer’s possible link

No response on McIntyre’s employment status after May 2025 The Anti-Corruption Authority issued an announcement on Friday denying there was any substance to public claims “doubting the validity and impartiality of the procedure followed before the start of the investigation of the Mafia State book, as well as the final report of the Inspection Officers, that was approved by the Authority.” Yet the announcement avoids answering the main claim raised by local news media, made in the last 10 days, that the Australian lawyer in charge of the investigation, Gabrielle McIntyre, had worked on cases at the international criminal court with Leto Cariolou, the lawyer of Makarios Drousiotis, author of Mafia State. Cariolou had worked as a legal officer for the United Nations international residual mechanism for criminal tribunals and in this capacity had worked on the war crimes trials of Bosnian Serbs such as Radovan Karadzic. McIntyre had served as head legal counsel at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and of the international residual mechanism of criminal tribunals. The Authority said nothing about this in its announcement, restricting itself to saying that as regards conflict of interest, “all inspection officers sign a ‘no conflict of interest’ statement that applies for the entire duration of the investigation.” It added that it “investigated the relevant allegations about Ms McIntyre and concluded that there was no issue of conflict of interest whatsoever.” As regards the way McIntyre was chosen as the head of the investigation, over which there had been several questions, the Authority said that “right from the start it sought to assign the investigation to a foreign lawyer of renown, without any prior links to Cyprus, in order to secure the complete impartiality of the procedure.” It added that it had contacted “international and European organisations,” avoiding giving any names, “as well as individuals in Greece, examining about 25 candidates.” The interviews were carried out via tele-meetings or by telephone and many candidates were unable to take on the job because of the demands of the investigation, said the Authority. “In the end it was decided that Ms McIntyre was the most suitable person to lead the procedure, rejecting as baseless the allegations that her appointment was predetermined or instigated by ulterior motives,” said the Authority. Nowhere in Friday’s statement does the Authority address the claim that McIntyre may have worked with Cariolou, raising the issue of conflict. Its explanations about the way McIntyre was appointed were also vague. A week ago, The Cyprus Mail had sent a list of questions to the Anti-Corruption Authority regarding the investigation and was told that Friday’s statement answered most of the questions. It did not answer how much money had been paid to McIntyre for her work. Nor was any explanation given about the fact that from May 2025, she was performing her investigative job, for no payment, in her free time, because she had been employed as director of the secretariat of the assembly of states parties to the Rome Statute. The Authority failed to inform us how she was remunerated since May 2025, when she had a full-time job. The Anti-Corruption Authority concluded its announcement by washing its hands of the investigation, implying it would provide no more responses. It was a peculiar response, considering the Authority’s president, Haris Poyadjis, is the Commissioner for Transparency. “The authority underlines that, with the submission of the final report to the attorney-general, as is stipulated by the law, its work has been completed and responsible for the further actions as the other institutions of the Republic,” it said.