A wide net of potential criminal responsibility appears to be emerging in the case of leasing aircraft for the Republic’s aerial firefighting needs. According to information obtained by Politis, the police criminal investigation has been completed and the case file has been forwarded to the Legal Service for study and instructions.
On the basis of the months long investigation and the extensive body of witness statements collected, the file includes a police recommendation to prosecute both natural persons and legal entities for whom specific offences are believed to be substantiated.
According to the same information, the police are recommending criminal charges against 14 legal and natural persons. In other words, in the view of the investigators, a case is being made out against specific individuals and companies that participated in, or had a role in, the overall process of leasing firefighting aircraft.
What the legal service will decide
The Legal Service will now examine the file and the accompanying evidence and give directions to investigators at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Police Headquarters. It will decide whether additional investigative steps are required, or whether to accept the police recommendations, in whole or in part.
The way for a criminal investigation to begin was opened after the completion of an administrative inquiry. On 22 January 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment announced that “on the basis of findings of an administrative inquiry, the Cyprus Police has launched a criminal investigation into the procedures followed in a Forestry Department tender for aerial firefighting aircraft.”
In the same announcement the ministry said the administrative inquiry, ordered by the Agriculture Minister following a written complaint, covered “all contracts (leases, maintenance etc.) from 2017 onwards, in order to identify actions, acts or omissions that may give rise to disciplinary breaches or criminal offences.”
Staff suspensions
Given the seriousness of the case, three Forestry Department officials were suspended to allow the criminal investigation to proceed unhindered. Once their suspensions were lifted, all three returned to work but were seconded to other departments within the Agriculture Ministry, without access to information that could affect the ongoing criminal investigation.
The core offences under examination included abuse of power, corruption, bribery of a public official and accepting a bribe by a public official in return for favour.
The CID investigation went back as far as eight years. All contracts signed for the leasing of helicopters and aircraft to cover aerial firefighting needs were examined in detail.
Police describe the investigation as multi layered and complex, aimed at piecing together all parts of the puzzle, given the particularities of a case of this nature. Among other steps, investigators obtained court orders to examine bank accounts of specific individuals and of their first degree relatives.
In some instances, large sums were identified in accounts which, according to investigators, point to kickbacks linked to the aircraft leasing contracts. Under the microscope of CID detectives were also electronic devices and email accounts of individuals and companies for whom there were reasonable suspicions of involvement in the chain leading to the disputed contracts.
In the same case, a report in daily newspaper Phileleftheros last June noted that, based on statements taken by the police, “for a number of years a large volume of service contracts was awarded to the same company.”
According to that report, “following police investigation, evidence emerged showing that between 2018 and 2024, six tenders for the purchase of pilot services were awarded to a specific corporate entity.”