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In a significant unanimous judgment delivered on 4 September 2026, the Supreme Court of Cyprus allowed an appeal brought by the relatives of two Greek-Cypriot missing persons, set aside the judgment of the Nicosia District Court dismissing their action, and entered judgment against the Republic of Cyprus for violations of Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The case concerned Loizos Hatzigeorgiou and his son, Giorgos Hatzigeorgiou, who were abducted from the village of Strongylos on 15 August 1974 and whose fate remains unknown.
The Supreme Court rejected the first-instance finding that the Republic’s investigative obligation under Article 2 had not arisen because the remains of the missing persons had never been located. It held that the obligation to conduct an effective investigation arises where a person disappears in life-threatening circumstances and is not dependent upon the subsequent discovery or identification of remains.
The Court also held that the case could not simply be treated as another disappearance occurring during wartime hostilities. The missing persons were unarmed civilians abducted by other civilians and, in the particular circumstances, the authorities were required to conduct a targeted and effective investigation capable, where possible, of identifying and bringing those responsible to account.
Of particular significance, the Supreme Court found that concrete information concerning persons allegedly involved in the disappearances had been available to the authorities and that some of those persons had been seen in areas controlled by the Republic without substantive investigative action being taken. The Court concluded that the competent authorities had demonstrated substantial inaction and that neither political considerations nor the practical difficulties arising from the continuing occupation could remove the State’s obligation to investigate effectively.
The Court further found a violation of Article 3 ECHR in respect of the relatives themselves, recognising the prolonged uncertainty, anguish and psychological suffering caused by the authorities’ failure over decades to provide an adequate response concerning the fate of their family members.
To our knowledge, this is the first judgment at Supreme Court level in Cyprus to determine and clarify the Republic’s obligations under Articles 2 and 3 ECHR in these particular circumstances: where civilians disappeared in life-threatening circumstances following their abduction by other civilians, their remains have never been recovered, the Republic was not responsible for the original disappearance, but nevertheless possessed information capable of supporting meaningful investigative action.
The Supreme Court awarded €25,000 to the first appellant, the wife of Loizos Hatzigeorgiou and mother of Giorgos Hatzigeorgiou, and €15,000 to each of the remaining five appellants, amounting to total damages of €100,000. The first-instance costs order was also set aside, with the appellants awarded their costs at first instance together with €4,000 plus VAT, where applicable, for the appeal.
The appeal was successfully argued by Antonis Georgiou, Partner at Phoebus, Christos Clerides & Associates LLC, on behalf of the appellants.
The judgment is an important development in Cypriot human rights jurisprudence, providing authoritative guidance on the State’s continuing duty to investigate disappearances and confirming that humanitarian mechanisms, political considerations and practical difficulties cannot substitute for, or extinguish, the obligation to conduct an effective investigation under the Convention.
This is about the right length for the firm’s site: enough to make clear that this is a major appellate success and that you argued it, without turning it into a case note.
