Prison guard George Maltezos, a member of the “Equality” union, filed before the Supreme Court Unilateral Criminal Petition No. 1/2026 was filed with the Supreme Court, requesting an order to file an indictment against five government officials, including the Minister of Justice and Public Order and the Deputy Director of the Department of Prisons.
In a statement, Isotita reports that the indictment concerns offenses in violation of Articles 5 and 6 of Law 30(III)/1995, the law ratifying International Labor Organization Convention No. 135 on the protection of workers’ representatives.
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“The Nicosia District Court refused registration on July 1, 2026, based on a single premise: that the Republic of Cyprus ‘is clearly neither an organization nor a legal entity’ within the meaning of Article 6(2),” notes the statement from Equality.
It further emphasizes that “if the first-instance ruling stands, the result is clear: the country’s largest employer will be the only one immune from a law that the Republic itself enacted to protect union members — and the entire public sector will be left without criminal protection against anti-union reprisals.”
Isotita points out that when the state “hires, pays, disciplines, and fires, it is an employer like any other. This is precisely why Article 172 of the Constitution holds the Republic liable “for any harmful or unjust act or omission by its officials or authorities.”
Equality recalls that in December 2025, the Prison Guards’ Sectoral Council, represented by George Maltezos, “publicly highlighted overcrowding, drug trafficking, and understaffing at the Central Prisons,” and that on December 22, 2025, the union “publicly denounced that hierarchical authority was being exploited to recruit members into another organization (note: a labor union).” It adds that in May the union filed a complaint of harassment, which was followed by the appointment of an investigating officer to look into the case against Giorgos Maltezos.
It also states that a complaint was filed with the Attorney General, which was rejected on July 6, 2026, on the grounds that “there is no evidence.” “On July 28, the Republic of Cyprus assured the European Committee of Social Rights in writing that there is no risk of irreparable harm, precisely because the pending disciplinary proceedings provide full safeguards,” the Equality Ministry’s statement continues, concluding that on July 31, the Minister of Justice dismissed Giorgos Maltezos “with immediate effect, without notice, without compensation, before any findings from the disciplinary proceedings—which had been presented as a safeguard—were issued or even communicated to him, without observing the principles of due process, and without having the authority to do so.”
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Source: CNA
