Police said the claims and positions of the woman using the pseudonym “Sandy” will be judged in court. Her second written statement was published today in the online outlet Cyprus Times, bringing the high-profile case back into the spotlight.
Asked how police view the positions “Sandy” set out through Cyprus Times, police spokesman Vyronas Vyronos said her claims would be judged when the case, which has already been filed, goes to trial. Pressed further, he added: “We have nothing further to say as police,” noting that police cannot comment on any party’s position once a case is before the courts.
The woman behind the “Sandy” pseudonym has, in her two written interventions with Cyprus Times, sought to present her own version of events regarding her involvement in the case and to respond, among other things, to the claim that the criminal proceedings against her and journalist Makarios Drousiotis amount to an attempt to silence journalistic investigation.
In her first statement, she called, among other things, for the available data from Drousiotis’s device and accounts to be examined through a lawful and independent technical process, in order, she said, to establish the trail of specific messages.
Responding to those calls, Drousiotis said in a post yesterday that examinations of devices and other digital material were under way, funded through public donations. He added: “The evidence has already started to speak and is demolishing the police’s version of events, and her own narrative that she alone fabricated the messages and that their content is a product of her imagination.”
In her second intervention today, “Sandy” maintains that she did write messages connected to the case, but says they did not reflect real conversations or events. She also denies responsibility for material she says she did not write, say or pass on.
At the same time, police are also investigating a separate criminal case, following a complaint from a specific individual over an alleged breach of personal data through the book “Mafia State.”
Asked about the progress of that investigation, Vyronos said it remained under way. “Statements are being taken to determine whether criminal offences arise against Makarios Drousiotis, but when this will be completed is still unknown, since in such cases each statement can potentially bring new evidence and testimony,” he said.
Police continue to investigate this second case, with no timeframe yet set for its completion.
