Old President of Cyprus Parliament and ex-MP among four charged with corruption, acceptable sources say, following Al Jazeera investigation.
Printed On 16 Jul 2022
Four of us, including the inclined president of the Cyprus Parliament, were charged with corruption over a money-for-passports scandal uncovered by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit.
The four are attributable to face trial in the capital, Nicosia, on 12 September after the island’s authorized authentic general filed five counts of conspiracy to defraud the say and untoward influence over public officers on Thursday.
Cyprus authorities said the costs were connected both to Al Jazeera’s investigation, and the findings of a 2021 board of inquiry prompted by the exposé.
The authorities didn’t determine the of us charged, but acceptable sources instructed Al Jazeera they were Demetris Syllouris, inclined president of the Cyprus Parliament; Christakis Giovani, a inclined member of parliament and property developer; Antonis Antoniou, the Giovani Crew’s govt director; and attorney Andreas Pittadjis.
The passports scandal become uncovered in an Al Jazeera documentary, The Cyprus Papers Undercover, released in October 2020.
The Cyprus Papers Undercover
Within the documentary, all four men instructed undercover newshounds posing as representatives of a fictitious filthy rich Chinese language criminal that they were willing to serve the criminal compose a Cypriot passport and change into a citizen of the European Union – for a mark.
The four men said that they’d serve the criminal compose a passport thru the Cyprus Investment Programme below which passports will be issued for a minimal of two.15 million euros ($2.5m at the time) funding.
On the opposite hand, in accordance with Cypriot law, convicted criminals were barred from benefitting from the programme.
When the newshounds requested Pittadjis if he had previously modified a client’s name for a passport so his criminal portray wouldn’t be detected, he answered, laughing: “Needless to divulge, that is Cyprus!”
Syllouris, then-president of the Cyprus Parliament, instructed the newshounds that they’d personal his “plump toughen”.
Asked if the criminal applicant would receive a passport, he said: “I will now now not say 100 percent but I say 99 percent.”
All four men denied any wrongdoing.
Inner days of the documentary’s unlock, the passport plan become cancelled, Syllouris and Giovani resigned, and the European Union and the Cyprus authorities and police launched investigations.
Hundreds protested against corruption starting up air the Parliament constructing in Nicosia.
Leaked documents confirmed extra wrongdoing
European Union passports are noteworthy-coveted documents for of us from Asia, the Center East and countries love Russia and Ukraine.
As an EU citizen, a Cyprus passport-holder is free to stay, work and commute in the 27 EU member states and revel in visa-free web entry to to bigger than 170 countries.
Before The Cyprus Papers Undercover become aired, Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit released The Cyprus Papers, a trove of bigger than 2,000 leaked applications for the Cypriot passport programme.
Those documents confirmed that between 2017 and 2019 Cyprus had well-liked passports for bigger than 30 of us who were below criminal investigation, worldwide sanctions or serving jail sentences.
A extra 40 candidates held sensitive political or say positions which meant they were understanding to be a most principal possibility for bribery or money laundering below EU pointers.
In that length, Cyprus had well-liked bigger than 1,400 passports below the plan, with many including household, taking the total to almost 2,500.
The 2021 Cyprus inquiry into the citizenship plan found out that 53 per cent of the 6,779 citizenships granted between 2007 and 2020 – the large majority of them to Russians – were unlawful.
The Cyprus exposé become segment of a noteworthy wider investigation which confirmed how a criminal also can take an English soccer club and exhaust it to launder the proceeds of crime, helped by “enablers” who also can cloak his wealth and commerce his identification – with a fresh passport.
The undercover newshounds were ended in Cyprus by Keith Hunter, a private investigator and inclined Scotland Yard detective, who said he had contacts on the island who also can serve the criminal client compose a passport.
The Men Who Sell Football become released in August 2021 and gained a raft of awards and a BAFTA nomination in 2022. The Cyprus Papers Undercover become nominated for a BAFTA the outdated year.