Lawyer who escaped from a UK prison will lose the right to practice in Cyprus
The decision to suspend Christos Christodoulides’ license to practice law comes after an investigation by OCCRP and CIReN, which detailed years of his legal issues including immigration fraud convictions in both Cyprus and the U.K.
More than a year after OCCRP and CIReN reported on the two-decade legal saga of lawyer Christos Christodoulides — who absconded from a U.K. prison after a 2005 sentence for immigration fraud — the Cyprus Bar Association has decided to temporarily suspend his law licence.
Christodoulides walked out of prison in the U.K. in 2008, two years into a 7.5-year sentence, and went to Cyprus where he held citizenship.
Authorities in the U.K. then engaged in a years-long attempt to get Cyprus to extradite hiфm. That effort failed, and Christodoulides finally ended up serving just 15 months in prison in Cyprus in order to resolve the outstanding remainder of his U.K. sentence.
Christodoulides was allowed to serve his sentence in 2023 and 2024 under house arrest in Cyprus — and he continued to practice law during that time.
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Now, the bar association has ordered his legal license suspended for 14 months, beginning December 17. The suspension is equal to “the period during which he practiced the profession while serving his prison sentence,” the association said in a decision posted online on December 4.
Christodoulides did not respond to phone calls and messages requesting comment. He previously told OCCRP and its Cypriot member center, CIReN, that all past claims against him had been settled.
The investigation published in October 2024 detailed Christodoulides’ years of legal issues, both in the U.K. and Cyprus, where he was convicted for selling fake visas.
The investigation cited legal documents showing that the bar association had accused Christodoulides of behavior that was “disgraceful or incompatible with the legal profession.” The documents also included allegations that he renewed his license in 2023 “without disclosing or while concealing” that he was serving a sentence under house arrest at the time.
The bar association then held hearings into Christodoulides’ conduct, and he faced the possibilities of being disbarred, having his license suspended, or being given a fine, warning, or reprimand.
The bar association has now decided on a suspension. In the decision made public this week, the bar association’s Disciplinary Council stated that it had "shown due leniency," taking into account the "difficult personal circumstances of the lawyer."
The decision lists about a dozen medical issues relating to both Christodoulides and his child, although most of them do not include specific details. The list of Christodoulides’ medical issues mentions a radiologist, physiotherapy and “gastric band surgery,” which is a weight loss procedure.
Irina Balakireva