Filenews 1 September 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivassilis
Time-consuming, complex and endless are the procedures for revoking naturalizations, which is why most cases are currently pending in the Courts.
Characteristic of the complexity of the procedures is the case of Malaysian businessman Joe Lowe, who obtained a Cypriot passport under the Cyprus Investment Program, then it was revealed that he was wanted and that is why his citizenship was revoked, a process initiated since last year. However, he formally remains Cypriot since his case is pending in the Court where he filed an appeal, while according to information from "F" he also appoints new lawyers to represent him.
As the Minister of Interior Nikos Nouris told "F", after the decision of the Council of Ministers following the findings of the Nicolatos Committee, he decided to revoke 45 citizenships.
The relevant notices have already been sent to the interested parties and they have been given a period of six months to submit their objection. Most of them have filed an objection to have their Cypriot passport removed, which is why the Independent Committee for the Examination of Deprivation of Citizenship after studying the objection and the reasons invoked by the affected persons, the Minister of Interior is informed accordingly. The MoD goes to the Council of Ministers which confirms the decision to remove the citizenship. Beyond that, the interested parties have the right to appeal to the Courts where a decision will be taken on the final or not deprivation of citizenship.
The important thing, Mr. Nouris stressed, is that the recommendations of the Nicolatos Committee are being implemented en masse, while at the same time he stressed that persons included in EU lists concerning the Ukrainian issue are constantly deprived of citizenship. As he said, as of March 27, four persons on the EU lists were initially deprived of Cypriot citizenship, then another three and last June another four. Yesterday, following a recommendation by the Minister of Interior, the Council of Ministers decided to revoke seven more passports granted under the Cyprus Investment Programme (KEP). According to a statement by Mr. Nouris, the revocation of the passports concerns the cases of four investors and three family members, on the basis of the findings of the Investigative Committee, the EU sanctions and the provisions of the existing legislation.
It is noted that the revocation of passports concerns both investors and their family members (spouses and children), since as it was found in the Nicolatos report "in the essential year 2007 – August 2020, there was a massive illegality, that is, exceeding the relevant Law, on the part of the Council of Ministers and others, regarding the naturalization of family members of investors – entrepreneurs and managers of companies – investors".
In the meantime, the deprivations of nationality are based on Law 141(1) of 2002, where according to article 113 "Subject to the provisions of this article, the Council of Ministers may by Decree deprive any such citizen of the status of citizen of the Republic if it is satisfied that the registration or the naturalization certificate was obtained by deceit, false representations or concealment of any essential fact.
Also, according to the same report, "for the very large number of naturalizations that were made in excess of the Law, without, however, the applicants being responsible, the issue of revocation is particularly complex, since it is possible that acquired rights were created under Cyprus or Union Law".
