'Sandi': The woman behind the pseudonym speaks publicly for the first time
The woman behind the pseudonym 'Sandi' denies she was coerced or bribed and calls for an independent technical examination of the disputed messages.
'Sandi': 'I took on a role — not everything came from me'
The woman concealed behind the pseudonym 'Sandi' presented her own account of the case she was involved in for the first time publicly. In a written statement sent to the Cyprus Times, and referred to by Politis, she explains how her involvement began, describes her contacts with lawyer Niko Clerides and journalists Stelios Orphanides and Makarios Drousiotis, addresses the disputed messages and the statement she gave to police.
"I am not writing this text to ask anyone to justify me," she states at the beginning of her statement. "I am writing it because for a long time my side has not been heard as I actually experienced it."
"My involvement began from my own choices"
She acknowledges that her participation in the case resulted from personal decisions. She places the starting point in conversations she had with lawyer Niko Clerides.
"At first it was a conversation. Then came the questions. The answers brought new questions and, at some point, I began to take on a role. The role of 'Sandi'," she writes.
In her statement she does not specify which elements of what she said during that period corresponded to actual events and which formed part of the role she describes. "I am simply trying to describe how a person can be drawn into a role and struggle, as time passes, to step out of it," she notes.
However, she sets a clear limit to responsibility: "This is my part. But that does not mean that everything that followed came from me."
Contacts with Orphanides and Drousiotis
According to her account, the first contact with journalist Stelios Orphanides took place in 2020 following intervention by Niko Clerides. In her statement she does not provide a detailed account of the content of those conversations.
She then refers to contact with Makarios Drousiotis and a meeting that took place on 26 April 2023 at a café in the Mall of Cyprus.
"I wanted to go to the meeting and listen. To understand what this person knew," she writes. During that meeting, she contends, she formed the impression that the journalist already possessed information about the case. "I did not feel that I was revealing an unknown matter to him. I felt that I was facing a person who had already formed his own picture."
She also cites a public statement by Stelios Orphanides about his meeting with Makarios Drousiotis in Athens in 2023, during which, as she claims, the two journalists had compared information they possessed and concluded that they were communicating with the same person. "I do not accept the version that all the evidence that was later presented as the basis of the case came from me," she emphasises.
Call for independent technical examination
Particular reference is made to the messages that were at the centre of the case. The woman states that the mobile device she used during that period has been lost and is not available for examination. She contends, however, that technical data from other devices or accounts could be investigated in order to trace the path of the messages.
"If there are available technical data that can answer these questions, I believe that they should be examined by an independent and competent expert, in every lawful way," she writes.
Addressing Makarios Drousiotis directly by name, she calls on him to permit an independent technical examination of available data from his device and relevant accounts, solely with regard to the path of the messages. "I ask that the path of the messages be traced and that we let the available data speak," she states.
She does not clarify when exactly and under what circumstances her previous device was lost, nor whether copies of her communications at that time have been preserved.
Statement to police and publicisation of the case
The woman refers to her decision to approach police on 2 April 2026 and give a written statement, two days after Makarios Drousiotis's public post about the case.
"For me it was a shocking moment. Because suddenly I was no longer simply a person who had been involved in a private story. I had become a public figure in a case that everyone was now discussing," she notes.
Regarding her decision to give a statement, she explains: "Not to protect anyone. Not to attack anyone. But to stop 'Sandi' finally being a character on whom everyone could project their own version."
"I was not coerced, I was not bribed"
The woman explicitly rejects claims that she was coerced, used or bribed in order to give a particular account of the messages.
In her statement she cites a police announcement, according to which the investigation did not substantiate any offences, the messages that were examined were not genuine and their content was found to be false and without foundation.
"I do not want to use this development as an excuse for anything," she emphasises. "But I do want it to be understood that reality is far more complex than the picture that was created at the start."
The written statement acknowledges her participation in the case, but rejects any responsibility for evidence and actions that, according to her, did not come from her. A series of questions remain without detailed answer in the statement published by the Cyprus Times.
Source: Politis