The legal service and the police are seeking legally sound mechanisms to obtain a formal statement from Ioanna Photiou, widely known on social media as Annie Alexui, over serious public allegations she made against top Cypriot officials, authorities said on Thursday.

Justice Minister Costas Fitiris confirmed that procedures are under way to secure her testimony “in an institutional way”, stressing that investigations cannot be conducted through social media posts alone. In them, she levelled accusations against senior police officers, state officials and figures she linked to organised crime.

“Some actions are already being taken. The case cannot be substantiated through social media,” Fitiris insisted, adding that testimonies and written statements were a prerequisite for any criminal inquiry.

In further comments on Thursday morning, Fitiris said that a way would be found for Annie Alexui to hand over any material she claims to possess “institutionally and safely”, both for herself and for the integrity of the evidence.

Speaking on Alpha’s Kalimera programme, Fitiris said the process would ensure that “the investigation can be carried out on the basis of what the law provides”, reiterating that the authorities were not dismissing her claims outright, nor accepting them at face value.

“No one can say that everything she says is a lie, nor that it is true,” he said, adding that “names may be mentioned for which no case has been established”.

Asked why the police had not launched investigations into all of the allegations aired publicly by Alexui, Fitiris said that police investigations could be conducted without being made public.

“The police can investigate everything, but investigations are not announced,” he said, adding that decisions on what is disclosed publicly rest with the chief of police.

He expressed the view that investigations should not be conducted or debated in the public sphere.

“In my 40 years in the public and military sectors, I have seen that in every organisation there are vulnerable people who get involved with the underworld,” he admitted.

“The police is an organisation with people, and there are certainly some who do not think about duty, but about money.”

Photiou, who is currently believed to be in Russia where she has said she was granted asylum, has published numerous posts and videos alleging corruption, abuse of power, cover-ups and misconduct within the police and other state bodies.

Among those named is assistant police-chief Michalis Katsounotos, as well as other senior officers and public figures.

According to information passed to the Cyprus Mail, the legal service and police investigators are examining international legal procedures that would allow Photiou to give a statement from abroad.

If approved, her statement would be taken by Russian law enforcement officials, either in the presence of Cypriot police officers or through a written statement prepared by Cypriot investigators.

Under the same process, any material Photiou claims to possess, including documents, audio recordings or videos, could also be handed over through official channels.

Regardless of the method, authorities say the objective remains to obtain her deposition and assess the substance of her allegations through lawful procedures.

“The essence is to take her testimony and the evidence she claims to hold and to investigate, with the appropriate procedures, what she alleges, whether it concerns herself or other serious matters,” a source familiar with the process relayed to the Cyprus Mail.

Photiou has claimed she holds recordings of conversations with police officers and has alleged mistreatment when she attempted to give testimony in the past.

In one video, she offers to “send videos, recordings, conversations with all the police officers I have encountered, to see how they behave in cases of cover-ups and murder.”

“I have the recording. I keep the hard drive,” she said.

A central element of her public narrative concerns claims against assistant chief Katsounotos, whose name has surfaced in several high-profile controversies over the past decade.

Photiou has accused him of abuse of authority and of being linked to alleged cover-ups, claims which he has consistently denied.

Katsounotos was previously accused by former central prisons director Anna Aristotelous of colluding with a convicted felon to obtain compromising material against her.

An independent investigation later found no evidence of corruption, and the attorney-general declined to pursue prosecution on public interest grounds.

His name has also been linked to the unresolved 2012 road death of 17-year-old Andreas Loizou in the Mouttayiaka underpass in Limassol, when Katsounotos was head of Limassol traffic police.

Despite eyewitness accounts and allegations of a cover-up involving a high ranking politican’s daughter behind the wheel, no charges were ever brought, with authorities attributing missing records to technical issues.

Photiou has cited this and other cases as evidence of what she describes as systemic failure within law enforcement.

 She has also levelled accusations against other senior police officers, prison officials and public figures, alleging a broader network of protection and silence.

Lawyer Simos Angelides had questioned why certain allegations posted online have led to swift institutional action, while others of comparable gravity have not been visibly examined.

“You cannot, on the one hand, adopt certain reports and, on the other, not even have the will to investigate others,” Angelides said, adding that public assurances alone were insufficient.

“Without testimonies and written statements, things will remain in the air.”

At the same time, the legal service is reportedly considering whether to suspend European and international arrest warrants issued against Photiou in connection with offences such as spreading false information, given that efforts are now focused on securing her cooperation.