The government has scrapped Mathiatis as the site for its new prison and will build the facility instead on state land in Agios Sozomenos, near Nicosia.
Justice and Public Order Ministry officials made the decision at a meeting today, citing cost and local opposition to Mathiatis. The switch comes as Cyprus’s only prison, the Central Prison in Agios Andreas, has the highest occupancy rate in the European Union at 227.6%, according to Eurostat data — more than double its designed capacity, and well above Slovenia’s 134.2%, the next-highest rate.
The Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee said in a report published in December 2025 that it held grave concerns over high levels of inter-prisoner violence at the prison, and described living conditions there as very poor, pointing to severe overcrowding and a chronic shortage of frontline officers.
Mathiatis had been the government’s original choice. The Mathiatis Group for the Protection of Historical and Environmental Wealth said today it strongly opposed building there, arguing it would go ahead without environmental studies and on an archaeological site. Residents had been due to see the master plan this September and decide whether they wanted the prison in their area; the Ministry said it moved to Agios Sozomenos instead after concluding opposition would delay the project.
The Ministry said it chose the Agios Sozomenos plot after evaluating technical and economic factors, with total cost and the time needed for supporting infrastructure as the main criteria. Mathiatis, it said, would have required substantial new roads, sewage, water and electricity infrastructure, adding cost and delay; Agios Sozomenos already has, or has ready access to, this infrastructure nearby.
Agios Sozomenos is a deserted village near the buffer zone, abandoned in 1964 during intercommunal violence. It is known for a Byzantine cave chapel and the unfinished Latin church of Saint Mamas, and the surrounding area holds Bronze Age ruins that Cyprus’s Department of Antiquities has been excavating since 2016.
The Ministry said site selection is running alongside the wider work of designing, financing and preparing the project, so the final choice of location is not delaying it. Its stated goal is to build a modern correctional facility in the most cost-effective, fastest and most functional way possible, without compromising on security, functionality or modern standards.
Read more:
