The Union of Cyprus Journalists (UCJ) on Wednesday warned that the three criminal cases brought against journalist Makarios Drousiotis within days of each other put freedom of expression at risk, and questioned whether the authorities are targeting him.
Drousiotis faces three separate criminal investigations covering accusations of spreading false news, breach of personal data, and conducting an illegal fundraiser. The charges stem from his involvement in the “Sandy case” corruption allegations and disclosures in his book Mafia State.
“Is the suspicion that this particular journalist is being targeted by the authorities reasonable or unreasonable?” the UCJ asked, saying it was putting the question alongside the rest of Cypriot society.
The union said it initially refrained from commenting when Drousiotis was first charged over the “Sandy” material to avoid interfering with the judiciary. However, the rapid succession of a second case concerning Mafia State and a third into his legal defence fundraising prompted public intervention.
Accusing the Cypriot justice system of “straining at the gnat while swallowing the camel,” the UCJ criticised what it called inexcusable negligence and delay in some matters alongside excessive haste in others.
“In a well-governed state no citizen is above the law,” the board said. “At the same time, neither is the system of administering justice above criticism. When a journalist faces criminal prosecution, the risks lurking for freedom of expression are visible, tangible and predictable.”
The UCJ stated it will monitor the legal proceedings closely and intervene whenever necessary to safeguard press freedom.
The “Sandy” case
The case centres on message archives held by a woman known by the pseudonym “Sandy”, which appeared to show illicit dealings involving public officials. She passed them to Drousiotis, who held them for three years and published them shortly before Cyprus’s parliamentary elections, in which he stood as a candidate. She later said she had neither known about the publication nor consented to it.
The material carried allegations of corruption, blackmail and cover-up, along with claims of sexual abuse and references to a network said to be linked to the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. The affair spread to Greece after the newspaper Documento published messages attributed to Giorgos Mylonakis, deputy minister to the Greek prime minister.
Authorities say the messages appear to have been generated using an application. Reports say “Sandy” admitted creating them herself and showed investigators the app that produces mock conversations, and that technical examination found inconsistencies in operating systems, timestamps and message display.
The Attorney General filed the criminal case after studying evidence transmitted by police on June 30, 2026. The indictment carries 101 charges covering forgery of a document, circulating a forged document, publishing false news and harassment. The case goes before the Nicosia Criminal Court, with proceedings due to begin in the autumn.
What Mafia State alleged, and what followed
Drousiotis, a former presidential aide, alleged in Mafia State that a network around the seat of power had dismantled the rule of law in Cyprus. The Independent Authority Against Corruption spent two years investigating those allegations.
The Authority found reasonable suspicion that former president Nicos Anastasiades and a number of senior figures may have committed corruption-related offences including abuse of power and trading in influence. In the case of Anastasiades, it identified reasonable suspicion that he intervened in a live police investigation into Focus Maritime, a company linked to financial flows involving Andreas Vgenopoulos and Laiki Bank, allegedly pressing the then attorney general Costas Clerides to drop it. It also found reasonable suspicion over 250,000 euros provided in 2011 in connection with his 2013 presidential campaign, routed through offshore structures and disguised as introducer fees, and over arrangements surrounding the 2014 arrest of Elena Rybolovleva.
Others named include a former president of the Nicosia District Court, a law firm and one of its partners, a former assistant attorney general, a senior police officer, an alleged intermediary and the businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev. Findings against them range from abuse of judicial authority and bribery of a public official to conspiracy to obstruct justice and trading in influence.
The Authority stressed that its findings rest on the civil standard of proof, do not amount to criminal convictions and must be assessed by prosecutors. It sent its report to the Attorney General and the tax authorities, said the full document would not be published because of investigative sensitivity, and said everyone named is presumed innocent unless proven otherwise in court. Criminal investigators have been appointed over the findings.
Separately, police opened a criminal investigation into Drousiotis himself over a complaint of a possible personal data breach relating to references in the book. A police communications officer said that investigation is distinct from the case arising from the Authority’s findings. Police later said they had not acted on their own initiative but followed a complaint from a specific individual, which the competent authorities assessed before investigative steps were taken.
Drousiotis said police opened the data case four years after the book was published and two months after the Authority delivered its findings.
The fundraising campaign
Drousiotis launched an online campaign to cover the costs of his legal defence and independent forensic examinations. Donations have approached 50,000 euros.
Interior Minister Konstantinos Ioannou said that under fundraising legislation anyone conducting a fundraiser must apply to the Fundraising Committee for approval, and that he had given instructions for a letter to be sent to police suggesting they investigate whether a criminal offence arises.
Drousiotis rejected that his campaign falls under that law, saying he had legal advice that it amounts to crowdfunding rather than a charitable collection. He cited a crowdfunding campaign by the football club APOEL, which he said drew 3,957 contributors and raised 484,529 euros without any permit being sought. He accused the government of pursuing him with the criminal code in hand and of seeking to bring him to trial without the means to secure adequate legal and expert support.
Ioannou responded that the authorities were not chasing anyone and that if there was no breach, no prosecution would follow.
What is a SLAPP
The legal pressure on Drousiotis occurs against a backdrop of growing international concern over Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) – legal actions brought by powerful actors not primarily to win a court judgment, but to silence critics by imposing crippling financial and psychological strain.
While classic SLAPPs function through high-value civil litigation, media freedom observers warn that coupling multi-million-euro civil claims with a barrage of criminal investigations achieves an identical outcome: exhausting investigative journalists physically and financially while sending a chilling message to the public.
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