Writer and parliamentary candidate Makarios Drousiotis has named judges, senior officials and politicians — including a former president — in a social media post making allegations of paedophilia, corruption, surveillance and rigged trials.
The Police Chief has already ordered a senior officer to make contact with him, and several of those named have threatened immediate legal action.
The post lands in the final stretch of the election campaign — and the timing has not gone unnoticed. Both Drousiotis and one of those he names, EDEK candidate Morfakis Solomonides, are standing for parliament on 24 May. Solomonides has accused Drousiotis of deliberately targeting him to damage EDEK’s electoral prospects.
In the post, titled “Paedophilia, sell-offs, surveillance and rigged trials,” Drousiotis claims to hold material containing serious allegations against political figures, individuals in key judicial positions and businesspeople. He publishes images presented as text message exchanges between political and judicial figures, and says the material has been cross-referenced with a person said to be at the centre of the case, whom he met in 2023.
Among those named are former President Nicos Anastasiades, House Legal Affairs Committee chairman Nicos Tornaritis, former MEP Demetris Papadakis, Attorney General Giorgos Savvides, Assistant Attorney General Savvas Angelides, EDEK parliamentary candidate Morfakis Solomonides and a former judge whom Drousiotis implicates in allegations of paedophilia and corruption.
Police Chief Themistos Arnaoutis has directed a senior officer to contact Drousiotis with a view to him presenting his material for investigative purposes. Drousiotis has asked for time to consult his lawyer and said he will respond. Until that material is formally examined by a competent authority, all claims in the post remain Drousiotis’s unverified allegations.
The responses
The most detailed rebuttal came from former MEP Demetris Papadakis, who issued a lengthy denial and issued what amounted to an open challenge to Drousiotis. He said he categorically does not know the judge named in the post, has never had any contact or communication with him.
He noted he was among the first politicians to demand explanations about the Focus corruption case and the surveillance van. He called on Drousiotis to retract the references within 24 hours or face legal action — and went further, offering to consent to the lifting of his telecommunications data and to hand over his phone to a forensic expert of Drousiotis’s own choosing, in Drousiotis’s own presence, to prove that the allegations against him are “barefaced lies.”
Former judge Michalakis Christodoulou was equally unsparing. “The pinnacle of sick imagination and lies is what he states,” he said on Alpha TV, adding that he is available to any competent authority for investigation and that “everything is in the imagination of his mind.” He added that the least he would have expected from someone who describes himself as a writer was that he would have conducted research before “writing whatever comes into his head.”
Solomonides described Drousiotis as a “specialist in fabrications, fake news and mudslinging” and said a screenshot published in the post as supposed proof had already been demonstrated to be a fabricated image. He announced he would file a lawsuit for libel and defamation, lodge a complaint with the police cybercrime unit over the fabricated images, and place all his telecommunications data and personal files at the disposal of any authority. “Mr Drousiotis has a history of targeting individuals and tarnishing reputations,” he said. “This time he will answer where he should — in court.”
Nicos Tornaritis said he had instructed his lawyers to examine the publication immediately and take all necessary measures, and called on the competent state authorities to carry out a full investigation.
Former President Nicos Anastasiades responded by pointing to his book titled The Slanderer, which was written in response to Drousiotis’s allegations against him, saying its contents confirm the inaccuracy of what appears in the post. A fuller written statement is expected within hours.
DEPA called on the competent authorities to proceed immediately and effectively with a full investigation, warning that political life cannot be determined by unverified claims and public confrontations that have not been institutionally examined. “In a state governed by law, the institutional bodies of the state must have the first and last word,” the party said.
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