Administrative court overturns suspension of former prison governor Anna Aristotelous
The Administrative Court has overturned the suspension of former prison governor Anna Aristotelous pending the completion of an ongoing criminal case concerning classified documents.
Court overturns Aristotelous suspension — Presidency was the competent authority
The Administrative Court overturned on Wednesday the decision of the Public Service Commission to suspend former prison governor Anna Aristotelous, according to Cyprus Mail reports. The suspension, which was imposed in December 2025, remains overturned until the pending criminal case concerning classified documents removed from the institution is completed.
The decision was issued following an appeal lodged by Aristotelous against the commission, which had reduced her salary by two-thirds.
The court determined that the competent authority for recommending suspension was not the Council of Ministers, but the Office of the President of the Republic. When the recommendation was submitted to the commission in November 2025, Aristotelous was still employed by the Presidency and had not yet assumed duties as Permanent Secretary. The Council of Ministers' recommendation was characterised by the court as a legal error.
Aristotelous's lawyer, Christos Triantafyllides, immediately sent a letter to the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, informing it of the overturn and requesting the immediate appointment of his client to a corresponding position as Permanent Secretary.
The case began in April 2025, when a police search at the residence of a prison officer revealed a large volume of official documents, some of which bore the marking "confidential". Following extensive investigation, authorities arrested five people — four prison officers and one trainee police officer — on charges of breach of duty relating to the removal of the said documents.
Police estimate that the majority of the documents were removed between November and December 2022. Both Aristotelous and former deputy director Athena Dimitriou have already testified before the authorities.
Source: Cyprus Mail