Annie Alexui threatens to take govt to European court
Social media personality Ioanna Photiou, better known by her alias ‘Annie Alexui’, on Friday threatened to take the Cypriot government to a European court, arguing that her human rights are being violated.
During her latest television appearance on Sigma, she said she has “begun the preparation process” to take her case to a European court, having earlier stressed that the Cypriot police “has no jurisdiction” to travel to Russia to take statements from her.
“No police can come and take a statement from me. They have no jurisdiction. It is another country. What do they not understand? Who gives these people advice?” she said.
She added that she “does not accept” suggestions that arrest warrants put out in her name could be suspended so as to facilitate her making a statement to the police.
“What does suspension mean? That is, for them to come and do their thing and then for the warrants to be reactivated? Are you taking the mickey? Do you think I am an idiot? I want to send lawyers, to have confirmation that the warrants will not be activated,” she said, before offering harsh words for Justice Minister Costas Fitiris.
“Does the minister think that my life is a toy in his hands? A toy for the media? It upsets me,” she said.
She then said she could offer the Cypriot police a written statement regarding the allegations she has made against various public officials, chief among them suspended Paphos mayor Phedonas Phedonos, via a lawyer in Cyprus.
“I am thinking about it. I have not consulted the Russians. It is an idea,” she said, before adding that “when I see [Fitiris], I laugh”.
“I call him ‘firfiris’. I have no confidence in him,” she said.
Asked if she trusts anyone at the legal service or the justice ministry, she responded in the negative, before declaring that she now considers Russia to be home and Cyprus to be a “hostile place”.
“For me, my home is Russia, which helped me heal, gain self-confidence, and not be afraid. Cyprus is a hostile place which I hate,” she said.
On the matter of a potential suit at a European court, she said that “the Cypriot government will pay for what it did to me and for the violation of my human rights”.
Her comments come after Fitiris had on Thursday promised that a solution “will be found” to allow for Photiou’s claims to be substantiated in court, stressing that “the case cannot be substantiated through social media”.
“A solution will be found, and we will soon have more information about the case, but in an institutional way and not through social networks,” he said.
Photiou had previously said that she would only return to Cyprus from Russia if people she trusts in Russia asked her to do so.
“The only reason for me to return back to Cyprus is if the people who I trust here in Russia would ask me to do so for whatever reason,” she said.