Cyprus¶
The Cypriot case shows how a safeguard can be agreed in principle and still not be built. When one office both advises the government and decides on prosecution, independence depends on the conduct of whoever holds it rather than on the structure, and reform needs that office and parliament to agree to divide it. Each party can support the aim while objecting to the form, and the arrangement persists by default. It is tested only by the cases that matter most to those in power, which is when its weakness would cost most.
The clerk’s briefs¶
From the clerks, for the Patrician’s eyes
Not yet. Anyone whose case the government cares about, as suspect or as victim, depends on the restraint of one office, and so does any foreign state asking for someone to be pursued. Each parliament that lets the reform lapse makes the arrangement look more settled. Separating the roles would remove the hinge; a case that tests the office first would show what the hinge does.
July 2026: The reform waits¶
The European Commission’s 2026 rule of law report found that the bills separating the Attorney General’s dual role and creating an Office of the General Public Prosecutor have been pending before parliament since July 2025. The Attorney General raised reservations of a constitutional nature; the only element with general support is a fixed eight-year mandate. Parliament went into recess in late April 2026 for the elections and the debate was suspended. The clerks note that the office whose powers the reform would divide was among those objecting to it.