The Prison Guards Branch of the Pan-Cyprian Union “ISOTITA” is up in arms following the visit by Minister of Justice Kostas Fytiris to the Central Prisons.

Shortly after posting a statement in which it emphasized that it had never been invited to a meeting with Kostas Fytiris—contradicting the Ministry’s claims— the Union, in a statement, referred to the visit as “a public relations stunt staged on the ashes of Wing 4.”

READ ALSO: “We were never invited”: Equality prison guards refute Fytiris’s claims

It adds, among other things, that “the basic fire hydrant” was installed after the fact.

“The Minister did not visit the site of a hazard. He visited a freshly painted set, staged for the cameras.”

READ ALSO: Fytiris’s “Raid” on Central Hospital Following the Fire in Wing 4

The announcement in its entirety:

Mr. Fytiris’s “surprise” visit—A staged publicity stunt amid the ashes of Wing 4 and a false claim that will not go unchallenged

We learned from the announcement by the Ministry of Justice and Public Order of the “surprise” visit by the Minister, Mr. Kostas Fytiris, to the Central Prisons. Forty-eight hours after the July 19 fire in Wing 4—and after, as the Ministry itself admits, “the damage had been fully repaired” and, after the fact, the basic fire hydrant that had never been present during any of the three fires in the same wing—the Minister did not visit the site of the hazard. He visited a freshly painted set, staged for the cameras.

First, however, a necessary clarification. The claim that the meeting with the Sectoral Council of ISOTITAS “was not possible” because “both the President and the Secretary were absent” is untrue and offensive. At the time of the visit, five (5) officials of the Prison Guards Sectoral Council—including the Secretary—were on duty, inside the Central Prison, at their posts. No one sought them out. No one called for them. No one informed them. This was not, therefore, a case of an “inability” to meet; it is a deliberate attempt to create the impression that the Union—whose officials were on duty and were putting out fires just the day before yesterday—was “absent.” We call on the Ministry to immediately retract this false claim. The truth cannot be “restored” like the damage to a wing—with a fresh coat of paint.

And a reasonable question: by whom exactly was the Minister “informed” about working conditions and safety issues? By the very same Directorate whose negligence nearly cost human lives. The prison guards who fought a losing battle against the flames, with fire extinguishers running out one after another, the colleagues who were injured and the one who was treated with oxygen until the early hours of the morning—they were not asked. They obviously did not fit into the picture.

The Minister, on the other hand, found the time to meet with the leaders of the one and only union. The institutional exclusion of ISOTITA from information sharing and consultation is already the subject of pending complaints before European and international bodies. Yesterday, the Ministry’s own announcement added yet another piece of evidence to the case file—this time bearing its signature.

Finally, we would like to reiterate what we made clear publicly on July 20, 2026: the verbal dialogue has been definitively closed, due to the negligence of those who, for months, showed indifference, failed to respond to our letters, and chose disciplinary proceedings over solutions. The Minister is well aware of our address—both email and postal. Instead of shaking hands in front of the cameras, we call on him to do the obvious: respond in writing, point by point, to the six specific demands in our July 20, 2026, statement and to our letters that have remained unanswered for months. Every response he provides—as well as every instance of his silence—will be shared with the relevant European and international bodies.

Security cannot be restored with press releases, and photographs do not put out fires. The doors to the wings remain manually operated, in spaces designed for 600 people, 1,200 people are still crammed in, and our colleagues are still locked inside, like mice in a trap, in times of danger. If Mr. Fytiris cared as much about the substance of the issue as he does about his public image, half of these problems would have already been resolved.

We won’t wait for the next incident to count the dead.