Filenews 11 June 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
The time for the decisions on the al Jazeera network's revelations has arrived, since unless unexpected, next week we will have developments. The Legal Service has completed the study of the voluminous file prepared by the Police, decisions have been taken and it is expected that in the coming days the case is likely to take the path of Justice. The file has been completed by the Police and forwarded to the Legal Service since last April and was thoroughly studied by a team of lawyers under the Assistant Attorney General in cooperation with the investigators. The investigators of the ICF Headquarters have taken statements from several persons, including the key witness, a British real estate agent, while testimony was also produced by Britain.
Testimony was also obtained from computers and other evidence received by the Police as part of the investigation of the case, with dozens of emails being checked to determine whether they are related to the case. Al Jazeera's revelations were made with the publication in October 2020 with a video, which shocked the population about how a foreign investor, even with legal problems, could obtain a Cypriot passport. After the uproar, the Speaker of the Parliament, Dimitris Syllouris, submitted his resignation, publicly apologizing, "for the unpleasant image that passed to the Cypriot people - and not only - and the upheaval it has caused". Also, the resignation was submitted by the MP of AKEL Christakis Tziovanis, who was shown in the video that was made public. The Police had put five persons in the frame of the suspects and developments will be awaited to see for whom and for which offences anyone will be prosecuted.
Meanwhile, two other cases concerning naturalisations of foreign investors and entrepreneurs are before the Legal Service. Both are directed against providers – law firms - who had mediated the acquisition of golden passports. These are cases that emerged through the conclusion of the Research Committee under Myron Nicolatos. One of the two cases concerns a Vietnamese who while in detention in his own country, in Cyprus was being forwarded the applications for naturalization of himself and his dependants. In fact, it had been decided to give him Cypriot citizenship, but he remained in abeyance since he declared that he was prevented from coming to Cyprus to sign the relevant form.
Moreover, information from "F" indicates that in the final stage of the investigations there are two other cases of naturalizations. One concerns a law firm in Paphos and the second one concerns another provider – a lawyer. The Police have almost completed their investigations and by the end of June or early July they will hand over the relevant files to the Legal Service.
It is recalled that a criminal case registered in May 2021 against a law firm in Larnaca is currently pending in court.
