Cyprus’s Independent Authority Against Corruption has closed its investigation into the “black van” surveillance case after Attorney General Giorgos Savvides said the issues it planned to examine had already been investigated by prosecuting authorities in previous years.
That explanation does not appear to hold up. At least two potential conflict-of-interest allegations involving Deputy Attorney General Savvas Angelides could not have been examined by any competent authority at the time, according to philenews’s own investigation.
Prosecutors completed the criminal investigation into the “black van” case, which ended with the conviction of WsWispear, the company that owned the vehicle at the centre of the affair, before autumn 2021, when the case went to court. It was only after that investigation closed that philenews revealed the potential conflict of interest involving Angelides.
Angelides’s brother, Michalis Angelides, was a business partner of Israeli businessman Avraham Sachak Avni. Savvas Angelides was responsible for deciding whether to prosecute Avni at a time when Avni was his brother’s business partner, raising the possible conflict.
A separate issue involves an administrative services company under contract with a law firm Angelides co-founded, which had worked with companies in the surveillance industry, philenews found.
Both matters emerged during philenews’s years-long coverage of the case and are detailed, along with other findings, in the book “Cyprus, the Epicentre of Surveillance”. The Independent Authority Against Corruption said on Monday that the book had been the subject of its preliminary investigation, which has now been terminated.
Background
The “black van” case takes its name from a vehicle whose existence came to light through a Forbes advertorial; it was fitted with systems capable of intercepting data from mobile phone users. It has been linked to two Israeli businessmen active in the surveillance industry, Avraham Shahak Avni and Tal Dilian, both of whom had extensive activity in Cyprus. The original criminal investigation resulted in a fine for a company linked to Dilian’s interests. Avni and Dilian later both featured in the Predator spyware case in Greece, whose first victims were journalist Thanasis Koukakis and PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis; Dilian was convicted at first instance in Greece, with an appeal still pending.
Philenews has previously documented, through a series of reports, a wider pattern of links between Avni, Dilian and Cypriot officials, of which today’s conflict-of-interest allegations involving Angelides form part.
Philenews tried to reach Savvides by phone on Monday morning, shortly after the Authority’s announcement, but he did not respond to the call.
In his written statement, Savvides said the Authority informed him in a classified letter dated 16 July that it intended to investigate specific aspects of the “black van” case, under Article 10 of Law 19(I)/2022, legislation designed to prevent the same corruption case being investigated twice. Those aspects, he said, “did not concern the Law Office’s handling of the case.” The Authority’s letter also asked to be told whether the law barred it from conducting its own inquiry.
Savvides said he replied on 30 July, telling the Authority that all the aspects it had raised had already been investigated by the police and the independent criminal investigator, and informing it of the outcome and the case’s progress before the court. Based on that response and on Article 10, he said, the Authority decided on 8 September to terminate its “black van” investigation.
Savvides also addressed a suggestion in the Authority’s announcement that he had classified the correspondence between the two bodies. He said this reflected both the confidentiality of the information involved and the fact that “the Authority itself had correctly classified its own original letter.”
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