A sworn statement submitted by police to a court to obtain a search warrant for the premises of lawyer Nicos Clerides has revealed details of the investigation into the “Sandy” affair, including claims by the woman at the centre of the case that she fabricated messages and became so immersed in the role that she experienced it as real.
The Sandy affair centres on allegations by journalist Makarios Drousiotis of a network involving senior Cypriot judicial, political and financial figures. All those named have denied wrongdoing. The evidence has been sent to Europol’s cybercrime laboratories for forensic examination.
Philenews obtained the full text of the sworn statement submitted by police to court to secure the search warrant for the premises of lawyer Nicos Clerides, and is publishing its contents as part of its coverage of a case that has gripped Cyprus.
Philenews presents the material as a document, without adopting or rejecting any of the claims made, as submitted by police, with all matters referenced remaining at the centre of the ongoing investigation.
The statement, with sensitive personal data removed, was submitted before judge A. Koura. Police are investigating 12 serious offences relating to events between 2019 and the present.
“Sandy’s” background
Police obtained testimony from “Sandy’s” mother and brother stating she has only one child. This was confirmed by separate testimony from the Nicosia District Administration, which indicated the child was born from a specific person and not from the former judge.
Social Insurance Services records show that “Sandy” was employed by various companies between 2001 and 2023, contradicting claims that she had been taken abroad during that period.
Police also identified various visits by “Sandy” to doctors via the General Healthcare System during the relevant period.
Fake message apps
“Sandy” held three applications for fake calls and messages on her devices: Call Assistant, Call Assistant-Fake Calls and Prank Tweet FB Post. According to the sworn statement, all three were acquired after the messages in question were created.
In a communication with police, “Sandy” said the phone she used to create the fake messages had been handed to Nicos Clerides in 2019 or 2020 for safekeeping. She described it as a Samsung mobile on which the Call Assistant app had been installed. Clerides said on Wednesday he never had such a phone in his possession.
“Sandy’s” depositions
After the first publication by Makarios Drousiotis, police summoned “Sandy” for a deposition on April 2, 2026. She said she met Drousiotis around 2022 or 2023 after he contacted her.
At that meeting, she said, she gave him nothing and told him nothing, she said. He revealed he had the conversations in his possession but did not say how he had obtained them. She said he did not know that the messages were fabricated.
Asked why she fabricated the messages, she said she did so in moments of impulsiveness, without apparent reason or cause. She said she had an obsession with the specific judge and used the name “Sandy” to hide her identity. She told police the publications currently circulating publicly contain the fake messages she fabricated.
She handed her mobile phone to police for examination and a second phone was retrieved from her home with her written consent. Both remain under examination.
In a third investigative deposition, “Sandy” said she had become so addicted to the role of “Sandy” that she experienced the situation as if it were real, creating scenarios. She said she had “become one” with “Sandy” and felt everything as if it were real.
She also said the material she had sent to Nicos Clerides she had never given to a journalist in England, contrary to what Clerides had told police.
In her April 6, 2026 deposition, “Sandy” clarified that her original motive for fabricating the story was to feel important, which is why she approached Clerides. She referenced Judge Michalis Christodoulou so that Clerides would believe he was speaking to someone of social standing.
Over time, she said, she appeared to fabricate messages in response to questions Clerides asked her about topics and people of interest to him. After he questioned her, she would research online, gather information and present fabricated messages to him as if they were real.
She told him information which he then wrote into a 14-page document later handed by Drousiotis to police. She says the contents of that document are false.
On April 7, 2026, “Sandy” contacted a member of the investigative team to say she had remembered that the Samsung phone used to create the fake messages had been handed to Nicos Clerides in 2019 or 2020.
Nicos Clerides
Clerides was summoned and appeared at police headquarters on April 4, 2026. He said “Sandy” had approached him via messages and calls, followed by two visits to his office, after he made a Facebook intervention about judge corruption around early 2019.
She told him her alleged history with the judge: that they had a romantic relationship when she was a minor, resulting in a baby who died at age five and another child still alive but registered under a different father.
Police had initially asked Clerides to voluntarily hand over the mobile phone and email password. According to the sworn statement, while he did not refuse, he kept postponing the handover in a way that created uncertainty as to whether he would comply, which is why the search warrant was sought.
Michalis Christodoulou
In depositions dated April 2 and April 7, 2026, former judge Michalis Christodoulou said he has known “Sandy” since 2020, when she contacted him via SMS. He met her on three occasions: at his office, in a park and at an apartment.
He said he provided her with emotional support after she told him she was married to a very wealthy German, that her daughter had died of leukaemia at age seven and that her German husband had subsequently taken his own life.
Christodoulou said his wife was informed of the communication. In a subsequent meeting, “Sandy” purportedly told Christodoulou’s wife that everything she had told her husband was lies and could not explain why she had done it.
Christodoulou said the relationship lasted approximately one year. He denies any sexual relationship with “Sandy” and denies giving her money. He states that everything that has been published is false.
Makarios Drousiotis
On April 2, 2026, Drousiotis arrived at police headquarters while “Sandy” was giving her deposition. In a written complaint, he said he had been informed by Nicos Clerides that “Sandy” had disappeared.
Clerides had expressed concern because she had been in contact with him in recent days and was anxious. Drousiotis requested immediate protective measures. He was unaware that “Sandy” was giving a deposition at that moment.
On April 3, 2026, Drousiotis returned to police headquarters with his lawyer for a scheduled meeting. He gave a brief account of the material in his possession and it was agreed that he would be given time to prepare for a full deposition.
Among the documents in Drousiotis’s possession was a 14-page typed document describing “Sandy’s” history from childhood, her relationship with a judge referred to as “Michalis” or “Mikel”, allegations of sexual abuse while she was a minor, a pregnancy, the death of a daughter, the birth of another child, and her adulthood.
The document also described the judge’s alleged involvement in an entity referred to as “the Brotherhood” and its purported influence on the functioning of the state in Cyprus and Greece, with references to the Focus scandal among others.
Photographs
The sworn statement notes that two photographs published by Drousiotis, purportedly showing a joint bank account held by “Sandy” and the former judge along with sums of money, have been found on Google since 2018 and 2019.
Complaints filed
Complaints for the spreading of false news have been filed with police by former judge Michalis Christodoulou, his wife, their two children, former Supreme Court President Stelios Nathanael, Demetris Papadakis and Morfakis Solomonidis.
Restrictions on the search warrant
The judge who issued the search warrant placed explicit restrictions on police, directing that the search be limited to the extraction of material relating to named persons only and that all necessary measures be taken to protect the personal data of Clerides’s clients.
The judge stated that the warrant does not authorise police interference with data protected under Articles 15 and 17 of the Constitution, including mutual communications between individuals, the exchange of messages, views, feelings or ideas, professional correspondence or other professional data unrelated to the case.
Should police deem access to such material necessary, they must seek the appropriate court orders.
However, Nicos Clerides has described the dawn raid on his home and office as a “raid-style action,” saying police arrived in the early hours of Holy Saturday and “behaved like terrorists“.
Offences under investigation
Police are investigating the following 12 offences for events occurring between 2019 and the present: conspiracy to commit a felony; conspiracy to commit a misdemeanour; conspiracy to defraud; conspiracy to cause harm to a person’s reputation; computer-related forgery, specifically the input of computer data; preparation of a false document; circulation of a false document; publication of false news; unlawful processing of personal data; interception and/or inducing another person to use a device for interception and/or deliberate disclosure and/or use of private communications; corruption; and money laundering.
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