Drousiotis faces 73 charges as ‘Sandy’ case reaches Criminal Court

Local corruptionmakarios drousiotisTop Newstrial Drousiotis faces 73 charges as ‘Sandy’ case reaches Criminal Court Drousiotis Faces 73 Charges As 'sandy' Case Reaches Criminal Court Relevant News Drousiotis faces 73 charges as ‘Sandy’ case reaches Criminal Court 17 September 2026 UN mission finds grounds to believe US committed war crimes in Iran, and Tehran crimes against humanity 17 September 2026 Cyprus deputy shipping minister pushes stronger UK maritime ties in London visit 17 September 2026 Fanis Makrides 17 September 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber The long-running “Sandy” case reached court for the first time yesterday, with investigative journalist and author Makarios Drousiotis the lead defendant. The indictment, as was already known, also names 45-year-old Kyriaki Kyriakou, who is accused of drafting fake messages that portrayed figures in the judiciary and the executive as involved in serious criminal conduct. Both defendants appeared yesterday morning at Nicosia District Court for the case’s referral to the Criminal Court, over objections from Drousiotis’s defence team, who argued the case should be tried summarily by the District Court. Judge Despina Georgiadou nonetheless set the case for its first appearance before the three-member Criminal Court panel on December 15. Both defendants were asked to post bail of 10,000 euros. Yesterday’s proceedings underlined how serious Drousiotis’s position is under the indictment, as well as his own stated position that he is being prosecuted vindictively for exposing corruption among executive officials in his book “Mafia State.” On the indictment itself, the charge sheet confirms Drousiotis faces 73 of its 101 charges. Intent is specifically alleged too: he is accused of circulating the fake messages “in a fraudulent manner and with knowledge of their falsity.” Drousiotis himself, when he received the indictment on July 24, had said he was accused of intent and of knowing the messages were fake. 28 charges of publishing false news Twenty-eight of the charges concern the publication of false news. According to the charge details, Drousiotis published the false messages on his personal website and on social media between March and April. One representative passage from the indictment reads: “Specifically, the first defendant published a document with false content, titled ‘Paedophilia, foreclosures, surveillance and rigged trials: the dark face of the rule of law in Cyprus’, which included allegations that Michalis Christodoulou had committed sexual abuse and rape of a minor, and that he had fathered children with her, allegations which are entirely untrue.” 27 charges over a forged document Drousiotis faces a further 27 charges over circulating a forged document. Intent is specifically alleged under these charges: “The first defendant, on March 30, 2026, in the Republic, in a fraudulent manner and with knowledge of its falsity, circulated on social media and online a document titled ‘Paedophilia, foreclosures, surveillance and rigged trials: the dark face of the rule of law in Cyprus’.” And harassment Finally, Drousiotis faces 18 charges of harassment, on the grounds that he “engaged in conduct which caused harassment” to people who were the subject of his publications, or to people close to them. 28 charges against Sandy Kyriaki Kyriakou, presented by Drousiotis as “Sandy” and said to have given him testimony, faces 28 charges in total. Eleven concern drafting a forged document. The charge details for one count read: “On an unknown date, between 2018 and 2023, in the Republic, with intent to defraud, [she] drafted forged documents, namely written messages, presenting them as genuine when in fact they were not. Specifically, she drafted written communications that appeared to come from herself and Michalis Christodoulou, a former Supreme Court judge, attributing to him sexual abuse of herself while she was a minor, and children fathered jointly with the defendant, when in fact these written communications, and the allegations contained in them, did not exist.” The remaining 17 charges against her concern harassment. The people named All the charges against the 45-year-old concern her allegedly forged messages, which implicate, among others, Michalis Christodoulou (former Supreme Court judge), Myron Nikolatos (former President of the Supreme Court), Marinos Mitides (a senior district judge), Dimitris Papadakis, Morfakis Solomonides and Giorgos Mylonakis. The harassment charges also involve three members of Christodoulou’s family. The procedural details In the proceedings, Drousiotis’s lawyers, Lito Kariolou and Alexandros Clerides, argued the indictment did not disclose a case suitable for trial before the Criminal Court. The judge said that although the charges could in principle be tried summarily, given the Attorney General’s position, she was referring the defendants for direct trial before the Permanent Criminal Court of Nicosia, on December 15, 2026, at 9am. Kyriakou’s defence has been taken on, through legal aid, by Robertos Vrachimis; the court was told she is unemployed and receives a single-parent benefit. The evidentiary material was passed to defence counsel on a digital storage device, according to Phileleftheros sources. The Attorney General’s refusal Yesterday, Attorney General Giorgos Savvides rejected a request from Lito Kariolou, Drousiotis’s lawyer, for the Independent Authority Against Corruption’s findings report on “Mafia State,” along with related evidentiary material. The request had been made formally, in a letter dated August 4, roughly 15 days after Drousiotis received the indictment. In her written request to Savvides, Kariolou had described the material she was seeking as “potentially exculpatory.” The letter states that the material gathered during the Authority’s investigation into Drousiotis’s disclosures relating to the Focus case “relates to the substantive merit of the allegations contained in the disputed messages.” In other words, Drousiotis’s side believes the Authority’s findings on the Focus case would assist his defence in the present case, which concerns Kyriaki Kyriakou’s messages. Drousiotis: a vindictive process tied to ‘Mafia State’ Speaking to reporters as he left court, accompanied by his lawyer Lito Kariolou, Drousiotis said the process against him is vindictive. His position is that this is shown by the Attorney General’s decision to have the case referred to the Criminal Court, which can impose harsher sentences. He said: “We consider this a vindictive process, tied to the ‘Mafia State’ case, which was investigated by the Independent Authority Against Corruption and is currently the subject of a criminal investigation. Instead of being a protected witness, as the state and its institutions should have ensured, I am being referred to the Criminal Court in an abusive process. “Even if the charges hold up, which in our view they do not, this is a case that belongs before the District Court, not the Criminal Court. We raised this in the proceedings, and the judge herself indicated it should go to the District Court. But under the law, because the Attorney General asked for it to be referred to the Criminal Court, she was obliged to refer it there. “This is proof that this is a vindictive referral. I want to note that three people have come forward to, or approached, the Independent Authority Against Corruption: Odysseas Michaelides, who was dismissed; Anna Aristotelous, who is now back before the Criminal Court, on trial; and myself, as the key witness in ‘Mafia State.’ “This amounts to the Anti-Corruption Authority dismantling itself, and sends a message to anyone who has something to say or to testify, that they will find themselves in trouble if they do. That is the message, and that is what is at stake. It is a confrontation between the rule of law and the mafia state.” Asked about the likely outcome of the trial, he said: “We have full confidence in the judicial process. I’ve said this before. I have been through the courts many times over vindictive libel cases, and I feel the Cypriot courts have never let me down.” The “Sandy” case originated with a series of publications by Drousiotis alleging corruption and sexual misconduct involving public figures, centred on messages purportedly exchanged between a woman, Kyriakou, using the pseudonym “Sandy” and former Supreme Court judge Michalakis Christodoulou, who has acknowledged knowing her but denied all allegations of wrongdoing, philenews has previously reported. Bank searches subsequently found no evidence of funds moved abroad, and the Council of Ministers ordered the material sent to Europol for forensic examination. Police later announced that the messages were fabricated and forged and that the information they contained was false, a conclusion Drousiotis has publicly rejected while continuing to maintain that his own messages are authentic. Read more: Drousiotis criminal investigations put freedom of expression at risk, journalists’ union says Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News UN mission finds grounds to believe US committed war crimes in Iran, and Tehran crimes against humanity Cyprus deputy shipping minister pushes stronger UK maritime ties in London visit Trump derides EU pitch to Canada as ‘laughable’, threatens more tariffs On this day: Manuel Quezon y Molina was elected first president of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935 Police examine CCTV after motorcycle gunmen hit Limassol building (photos) British father to enter plea in son’s Paphos fatal fall case Anti-corruption chief says ‘black van’ case still open Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.