Former prisons director Anna Aristotelous has been appointed as acting permanent secretary of the defence ministry until the post can be properly filled, the cabinet decided on Friday.
The appointment will take effect from November 1.
Aristotelous will continue on as Head of Humanitarian Affairs of Missing and Enclaved Persons, a post she was appointed to in June 2023.
Before that, she had been appointed acting prison director in October 2014 and prison director in April 2016.
Aristotelous had faced a turbulent end to her tenure as prison director early in 2023 after alleging that a high-ranking police officer had colluded with an inmate to attempt to obtain damaging video footage of her.
She and her deputy than asked to be transferred after the deputy attorney-general announced two investigations into the prisons, one into her allegations and one into prisoners’ use of mobile phones while behind bars.
The result of the investigation was that no evidence was found to support Aristotelous’ claims, and that the police officer was in fact trying to obtain information as part of his job and trying to uncover potential offences carried out by members of the prison service.
Another four less public figures were appointed to various ministries as permanent secretaries from November 1 including Andreas Zachariadis to the finance ministry, Giorgos Pantelis to the education ministry, Marina Ioannou Hassapi to the transport ministry.
The cabinet also decided to submit a recommendation to the Public Service Commission to appoint Penelopi Papavasiliou to perform the duties of the position of general director in the General Directorate of Development at the finance ministry from November 1, until the position can be permanently filled. This will be in addition to her current post as Secretary to the Council of Ministers.
