Questions regarding potential links between the lawyer of journalist Makarios Drousiotis, Leto Cariolou, and the investigator appointed by the anti-corruption authority to examine the allegations he had levelled in his book, Australian lawyer Gabrielle McIntyre continued on Friday, with media reports centring on the issue of how McIntyre was selected to lead the investigation.

News website Ink raised the question of whether McIntyre was personally selected by transparency commissioner Harris Poyiadjis or whether the decision was taken collectively by the anti-corruption authority.

It quoted Poyiadjis as having “refused to answer”, and having explained that the decision was taken “two and a half years ago”. The Cyprus Mail has reached out to Poyiadjis and is awaiting a response.

Additionally, Ink stated that “given that Cariolou legally represents [Drousiotis], and considering the importance of this particular investigation to the country’s public life, it is reasonable to request full explanations for the selection process” regarding McIntyre’s appointment.

Cariolou represented Drousiotis in a libel case filed against him by Victor Papadopoulos, who had served as deputy government spokesman and presidential press office director under Nicos Anastasiades, and now serves as presidential press office director under incumbent President Nikos Christodoulides.

She also represented him in the Drousiotis v Cyprus case, wherein he took the Republic of Cyprus to the European Court of Human Rights in 2022 after being found liable for defamation by the Supreme Court.

According to news website Sigma Live, in addition to representing Drousiotis, Cariolou had worked as a legal officer for the United Nations’ international residual mechanism for criminal tribunals.

In this capacity, she had worked on international criminal cases including the war crimes trials of Bosnian Serb officer Ratko Mladic, former Republica Srpska president Radovan Karadzic, and the trial of Rwandan politician Augustin Ngirabatware for inciting the Rwandan genocide.

McIntyre had served as head legal counsel at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the ad hoc UN court set up to try Mladic and Karadzic, among others, and of the international residual mechanism for criminal tribunals.

She, too, had therefore worked on the trials of Mladic, Karadzic and Ngirabatware, suggesting that the pair may have had some professional interaction. Ngirabatware was convicted in 2012, Karadzic in 2016, and Mladic in 2019.

McIntyre was appointed to lead the anti-corruption authority’s investigation into allegations made in Drousiotis’ book Mafia State in February 2024.