PRISON Governor Haris Themistocleous has not ruled out resigning his position after the Justice Ministry placed a gag order on him last week, he said yesterday.
“Everything is under consideration,” Themistocleous told the Cyprus Mail yesterday, adding that he would make a decision soon after reviewing his options.
The gag was unearthed by the Cyprus Mail last week during a routine enquiry. The normally outspoken Themistocleous, brother of Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous, received a letter last week from the Ministry forbidding him to speak to the press unless he had their permission.
On Tuesday, the Justice Ministry denied that it had gagged the Prison governor and said it had merely pointed out to Themistocleous the procedures that should be followed when speaking to the media, which means he should first clear his answers with his superiors.
However, the Justice Ministry statement omitted paragraph three of the letter to Themistocleous, which told the prison governor that he was not allowed even to express his “thoughts or views” on issues pertaining to the prison.
Since he took over as prison director in January 2000, Themistocleous, a criminologist who spent 27 years in Canada prior to returning to Cyprus, has not shied away from the press, talking openly about prison problems.
He said from the beginning that the present prison system lacked a lot of things such as aftercare for released inmates and parole officers to help them reintegrate into society. Since then, he has commented publicly on such topics as life imprisonment, the treatment of psychiatric patients in prison, sex behind bars and other issues that he specialises in.
Themistocleous has not discussed the gag order with Justice Minister Nicos Koshis.
“They make the rules,” he said.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
