Six new investigations have been launched by the Legal Service for 2025 in relation to corruption at a "high level", while 15 criminal prosecution cases are ongoing for 26 individuals related to the golden passports.
This is stated in a note by Attorney General Giorgos Savvidis to the Parliament on the occasion of the discussion of the budget of the Legal Service for 2026. The same note also states that a significant number of corruption cases, mainly at a low level, involving local administrations and authorities have been or are being examined.
Also citing the European Commission's Rule of Law report on Cyprus, the Attorney General states that in 2024, a total of five people were convicted of corruption offences in four adjudicated cases, while the police investigated 13 corruption cases, including high-level corruption cases (compared to three convictions and five investigations in the previous year).
In 2024, 14 cases of corruption in sports were initiated or tried, while an investigation into a high-ranking official in the field of sports is still ongoing (the report concerns the former president of the KOP Giorgos Koumas) that began at the end of 2023. It is also noted that many of the 15 corruption prosecutions linked to the investor citizenship scheme, which has now been suspended, initiated by the Attorney General, are still ongoing and 26 natural and legal persons are currently being prosecuted.
At the same time, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) investigated one corruption case in 2024, which accounted for around 4% of the total number of European Public Prosecutor's Office cases in Cyprus. Civil society (Oxygen of Democracy and CIReN) has expressed, according to the European Commission's report, continued concerns about systemic weaknesses, delays in investigations and prosecutions, as well as a perceived lack of impartiality in how cases are handled at a high level, advocating for more effective checks and balances and the need for more specialisation and more resources.
The report notes that more anti-corruption investigations have been launched for 2025 and that the Anti-Corruption Task Force, which reports to the Prosecutor General, continued to supervise the investigations and prosecution of corruption offences, including high-level corruption cases, and organised training on asset recovery. "This expertise was crucial, resulting in more than €8 million in frozen assets. in domestic cases in 2024, marking a significant increase compared to previous years."
In the same note to the Parliament, the Attorney General returns to the well-known issue of his disagreements with the changes in the Legal Service and the split of his dual role, noting that alternative proposals and/or solutions could be proposed, which would leave no room for constitutional reservations and that no estimate of the cost of these changes has been made so far.
