Central prisons case: charges amended to include 551 digital items

The Nicosia criminal court on Thursday approved amendments to charges against eight defendants in the central prisons documents case, increasing the number of digital items allegedly stolen from 421 to 551, while the defence challenged the prosecution’s request to add a police officer to its witness list. The court is expected to announce its decision on the additional witness on November 3. The amendments concern the sixth and ninth charges, under which the defendants, while serving as public officials, allegedly stole state property from the Prisons Department between October 2022 and April 2025. According to the revised indictment, the alleged theft involved 551 items, including optical discs, floppy disks and USB storage devices, which were reportedly removed from the central prisons and taken to the home of the third defendant.

All eight defendants were formally charged again following the amendments and pleaded not guilty. Senior State Counsel Vasilis Bissas said the changes were intended to bring the details of the indictment into line with the prosecution’s evidence. He clarified that they did not involve additional evidence being disclosed to the defence, but concerned items containing digital material. He argued that, as proceedings were still at an early stage, the amendments would not prejudice the defendants’ rights. Lawyer Christos Triantafyllides, representing the first defendant, former central prisons director Anna Aristotelous, did not object to the amendments but described the prosecution’s approach as an abuse of process. The second defendant, former deputy director Athena Demetriou, objected, arguing that her rights were being violated and pointing to repeated changes in the number of documents involved in the case. The remaining defence lawyers…