Greek family demands Cyprus pay almost €5 million under ICSID arbitration ruling

The family of a Greek citizen who has been paralysed since childhood has publicly appealed to the Cypriot authorities to pay almost €5 million awarded to her by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington. The ruling was issued in March 2026, but the Cypriot government has still not implemented it.

The case of “Adamakopoulos and Others v. Cyprus” was registered in 2015. The claim was filed by depositors of Laiki Bank and Bank of Cyprus, who believed that their funds had been unlawfully seized during the bailout of Cyprus’s banking system in 2013, when the “deposit haircut” raised €10 billion for the state budget. The total amount claimed was $570 million (€492 million).

The tribunal rejected all the claims except one, making an exception for the Greek family on humanitarian grounds. The tribunal noted that Cyprus had itself exempted charitable organisations and people whose money represented compensation for injuries from the “haircut” — including those affected by the explosion in Mari and the victims of the Helios disaster. Denying this family the same treatment was described as a violation of the principle of fair and equitable treatment.

The family lost €2.8 million in the two banks; the nearly €5 million awarded includes this amount plus interest. In the same ruling, the tribunal ordered the claimants to reimburse the Republic of Cyprus approximately €5 million in legal costs.

In July 2026, Cyprus filed an application for the partial annulment of the ruling, arguing that the bilateral investment protection agreement between Greece and Cyprus, signed in the early 1990s, was not in force during the period in question. A new tribunal is currently being formed: it may reject the application immediately or reconsider the part concerning the Greek family, a process that will take months.

The applicants’ daughter became disabled in 1987: at the age of three, her heart stopped during an operation at a hospital in Sydney, and the resulting brain damage proved irreversible. She requires round-the-clock care. On 9 August, the family wrote to President Nikos Christodoulides and Attorney General Giorgos Savvides. “Settle this now,” her mother said.