Filenews 8 October 2025 - by Michalis Chatzivasilis
Four years after the delivery of Nikolatou's report on the party with the "golden" passports, the Police investigations have not yet been completed, for various reasons, mainly due to the delay in transmitting data from abroad, but also the complexity of the cases.
Although some cases have been registered before the courts, it was not the volume one would expect, provided that in the conclusion delivered by the former president of the Supreme Court Myron Nicolatos, there were many cases of acquisition of Cypriot passports by foreign investors and businessmen, where there was suspicious involvement of the parties concerned in criminal acts. As found in the report, in some cases the rudimentary control of investors by the providers and later by those who approved their applications was not even carried out, with the result that persons wanted by the authorities of their country or other countries, received Cypriot citizenship and a "golden" passport, which under other circumstances would never have been naturalized as Cypriot citizens.
As a result, the Government, through the Council of Ministers, through the establishment of the special committee, is forced to retrospectively remove the naturalizations of those who seem to have been done illegally. It is recalled that the Nicolatou report was studied by the Legal Service and instructions were given from the summer of 2021 to investigate dozens of cases of investors who received a Cypriot passport, while there were serious legal and other obstacles. As it had become known, more than 100 cases were forwarded to the Police to examine whether criminal offenses arose behind the acts of naturalization. The special team of investigators had been strengthened at some stage with the persons who were conducting investigations into the collapse of the Economy, however the procedures are complex and the investigations are endless. Attention was given to some cases involving well-known persons, while for the rest the examinations continue.
So far, the Police, through the special unit set up at the TAE of the Police Headquarters, has sent to the Legal Service less than 10 completed files, which included over 20 cases of naturalization. Some cases have been tried by the courts, others are pending, and one was ordered to be retried after an acquittal. The biggest case that is before the Criminal Court, but its hearing has not begun, concerns the law firm of Andreas Dimitriadis in Paphos.
In the meantime, information from "F" states that a broad meeting has recently been scheduled at the Legal Service for the beginning of November, in order to examine all the cases under investigation, where their course is and the further actions that remain to be taken. Some cases have become "stuck" in procedural procedures, such as the questioning of search warrants and the receipt of evidence by the investigative authorities, as well as the securing of telecommunications data. For several cases, data from abroad is expected, while there are also some cases that are in the final stage.
At the meeting, investigators will inform the heads of the Legal Service about the whereabouts of the investigation into a serious case involving the granting of passports, for which a lawyer and other persons are being checked. Developments are expected soon for this case, as there was a referral to the Supreme Court challenging the legality of the relevant search warrant.
