The release papers for Annette Mangan were signed yesterday by the Cyprus President, Mr Glafkos Clerides. But Mangan spent yet another night in the women's wing of the Nicosia Central Prisons while arrangements were made for her departure.
An authoritative source told The Irish Times that Mangan (22), of Dublin, who has served one month of a four-month sentence for a false accusation of rape, would be freed this morning. The local media are reporting that this will take place at 8.30 local time (6.30 Dublin time).
Her sister, Ms Avril Mangan, who intends to accompany Mangan on her flight off the island, has been told by the warden of the women's prison to turn up this morning with money for the two airfares, without specifying the sum.
The sisters do not know on which airline, or when, they will depart. The flight is being booked by the Immigration Department, which will escort the prisoner to Larnaca airport where she will be deported and banned from returning to Cyprus for the duration of her uncompleted sentence.
The chaos surrounding her release made her father, Albert, of Castle Park, Tallaght, consider changing his plan to fly back to Dublin this morning along with his son, Graham.
The three family members have been in Cyprus since Mangan's imprisonment in early August and have offered her both moral and very considerable logistical support, including engaging a lawyer.
Mr Albert Mangan, frustrated over procedures and the slow pace of the appeal, even paid a personal call on a senior counsel in the office of the Attorney General, who viewed Mangan's case "very sympathetically". But sympathy had to contend with the law's delays and the summer holidays of the Cypriot officials.
