Court to decide access to classified prison files

Nicosia criminal court ruled on Thursday that it will take it upon itself to determine which case files should be deemed classified or secret, in the trial involving the theft of a trove of documents from the central prisons.

On trial are the former director of the prisons Anna Aristotelous, former vice-director Athena Demetriou, five prison wardens and a former employee of the prisons who is now a police officer.

The indictment includes conspiracy to commit a felony, abuse of power, violation of official confidentiality, personal data processing offenses, theft by a civil servant, violation of the security rules for classified documents and illegal possession of property.

The documents cache was found in April 2025 in the house of a chief prison warden. There were approximately 48,000 documents.

Police had been searching the premises as part of an investigation into a different case.

Many of the documents are marked ‘confidential’ and ‘secret’ and are believed to have been removed illegally from the prisons between November and December 2022.

Aristotelous was serving as director of the central prisons at the time of the alleged unlawful removal of the documents, before leaving the post in late December 2022.

The eight defendants have yet to enter a plea. Their lawyers want access to all the material before their clients plead innocent or guilty.

The trial is still in the discovery stage. Discovery is the pre-trial process where opposing parties exchange information, evidence, and witness lists to prevent ‘trial by ambush’ and narrow disputed issues.

On Thursday, attorneys for the defendants argued they must have access to, or at least be able to review, all documents in the prosecution’s possession.

Otherwise, they asserted, they would be “arguing blind” in court.

Prosecutors have not shared roughly 2,900 documents with the defence. They say these are highly sensitive, as they relate to attorney-client conversations as well as maps of the central prisons. Sharing these in open proceedings might jeopardise national security.

The prosecutors added that copies of these withheld documents have been shared. The files indicate the subject, the classification and the date – but the content is redacted.

But the defence wants full access, posing the issue of a fair trial.

After hearing both sides, the court decided that it will review the documents in question and decide which can be shared with the defendants.

The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for April 24.