The ALMA party has taken a firm stance regarding the potential appointment of Ilias Anagnostopoulos as a criminal investigator in the “Mafia State” case. The political party emphasized that instead of learning from what reports describe as a fiasco, the government is leaning toward appointing the defense attorney who represented Tal Dilian in Greece.
Furthermore, the party points out that the individual in question is not someone who merely used to be a criminal defense lawyer and is now being called upon to serve from a different institutional position. Instead, they describe him as an active private attorney whose professional track record is historically linked with handling high-profile corruption cases, some of which feature a Cypriot dimension. These include defending a Cypriot businessman in the well-known Tsochatzopoulos case and representing Leonidas Bobolas in the Koshi landfill scandal.
Institutional Neutrality and Conflict of Interest Concerns
According to the official announcement issued by ALMA, the latest developments surrounding the appointment of independent criminal investigators to probe the “Mafia State” scandal confirm that the government, and primarily the President of the Republic, still fail to understand basic concepts of conflict of interest and institutional credibility.
The opposition party notes that up until the resignation of the first appointed investigator, the government insisted that no conflict of interest existed and attacked those who pointed out the obvious. Today, the government’s own handling has proven it wrong. Yet, rather than learning from this misstep, reports indicate it is shifting toward appointing Tal Dilian’s Greek defense defense lawyer.
ALMA argues that this choice does not align with proper institutional practice. For such sensitive and high-profile investigative tasks, the party maintains that the state should utilize individuals who are no longer actively involved as defense lawyers in corruption cases, thereby projecting complete institutional neutrality. This is particularly critical given that the attorney continues to actively practice law, including serving as Dilian’s defense counsel in Greece for the wiretapping scandal.
Executive Independence Questioned
At the same time, the statement highlights that the President of the Republic continues to insist that he will personally decide on the appointment of the investigators, despite what the party describes as an obvious conflict of interest.
The text outlines that the President served as a minister in the Anastasiades administration, is a witness in the case under investigation, and his political trajectory remains inextricably linked to Nicos Anastasiades. Consequently, the party concludes that the President cannot position himself as a guarantor of the independence of this specific investigation.
