The previous president of the Cypriot parliament, Demetris Syllouris, and three others will face a legal trial subsequent month over a “cash-for-passports” scandal uncovered by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit, a court docket has dominated.
The 4, who appeared on Monday on the district court docket within the capital, Nicosia, face 5 corruption costs, together with conspiracy to defraud the state and untoward affect over public officers. The trial date on the legal court docket was set for October 26.
Apart from Syllouris, the opposite three defendants are Christakis Giovanis, a former member of parliament and property developer for the Giovani Group; Antonis Antoniou, the Giovani Group’s government director; and lawyer Andreas Pittadjis.
They deny any wrongdoing.
Syllouris’ lawyer Chris Triantafyllides requested the court docket to notice the defence argument that there’s a battle of curiosity with costs filed by the Legal professional-Basic George Savvides and his deputy Savvas Angelides, who had been authorities ministers throughout the passport scandal
On the finish of the 25-minute listening to, Syllouris, Giovanis and Antoniou had been launched on a 50,000-euro ($50,600) bail every. Pittadjis’s bail was set at 30,000 euros ($30,400), in line with the Cyprus Information Company.
The fees adopted Al Jazeera’s undercover investigation and the findings of an official inquiry prompted by the revelations, Cyprus authorities mentioned.
Cyprus Funding Programme
The “golden passports” scandal was uncovered in The Cyprus Papers Undercover, an Al Jazeera investigation launched in October 2020.
Within the documentary, all 4 males instructed an undercover reporter posing because the consultant of a fictitious Chinese language legal that they had been keen to assist him get hold of a Cypriot passport and grow to be a citizen of the European Union – for a value.
They mentioned they might assist him purchase a passport by means of the Cyprus Funding Programme. Underneath the scheme, passports may very well be issued for a minimal 2.15 million euros ($2.5m on the time) funding.
Nonetheless, convicted criminals had been formally barred from making use of, which might have disqualified the fictional Chinese language consumer.
Syllouris, then president of the Cypriot parliament, instructed the undercover reporters that their legal boss would have his “full help”.
He mentioned: “You’ll be able to inform him that he can have, with out mentioning my identify or anyone else’s, full help from Cyprus. At any degree – political, financial, social, every little thing.”
Requested if the legal applicant would obtain a passport, he mentioned: “I can not say 100% however I say 99 p.c.”
Pittadjis mentioned the consumer’s identify may very well be modified on the passport, giving him a totally new identification, and making his legal report undetectable.
This could permit a legal to maneuver cash and journey by means of the EU with out elevating alarm.
When the reporters requested Pittadjis if he had beforehand modified a consumer’s identify for a passport, he replied, laughing: “After all, that is Cyprus!”
Giovanis mentioned he would do every little thing he might to get a passport for the Chinese language legal. “It’s not straightforward. However I can promise, we will do one of the best. And I consider we’ve the expertise,” he mentioned.
Antoniou mentioned the Chinese language legal ought to make investments as much as 20 million euros ($20.2m) in Cyprus to learn from “extra beneficial” phrases. “You’ll be able to ‘skip the ready listing’, as we are saying,” he mentioned.
The documentary despatched shock waves by means of the Mediterranean island. Inside days of its launch, the passport scheme was scrapped, Syllouris and Giovanis resigned, and the EU, Cypriot authorities and police launched investigations.
Hundreds protested in opposition to corruption exterior the parliament constructing in Nicosia.
EU passports are prized by many from exterior the bloc, together with Asia, the Center East and Africa, and from international locations akin to Russia and Ukraine.
A Cypriot passport provides the holder the proper to stay, work and journey within the 27 EU member states and to take pleasure in visa-free entry to greater than 170 international locations.
The Cyprus Papers
Earlier than The Cyprus Papers Undercover was broadcast, the Investigative Unit launched The Cyprus Papers, a trove of greater than 2,000 leaked purposes for the Cypriot passport programme.
The paperwork confirmed that between 2017 and 2019, Cyprus had accepted passports for greater than 30 individuals who had been below legal investigation, worldwide sanctions or serving jail sentences.
An extra 40 candidates held delicate political or state positions, which meant they had been thought of a critical danger for bribery or cash laundering below EU tips.
A 2021 Cyprus inquiry into the citizenship scheme discovered that 53 p.c of the 6,779 citizenships granted between 2007 and 2020 – the overwhelming majority of them to Russians – had been illegal.
The Cyprus exposé was a part of a wider investigation that confirmed how a rich legal might purchase an English soccer membership and use it to launder the proceeds of crime, helped by “enablers” who might conceal his wealth and alter his identification – with a brand new passport.
The undercover reporters had been led to Cyprus by Keith Hunter, a personal investigator and former Scotland Yard detective, who mentioned he had contacts on the island who might assist the legal consumer get hold of an EU passport.
The Investigative Unit’s documentary The Males Who Promote Soccer was launched in August 2021 and picked up a string of United Kingdom and worldwide awards and a BAFTA nomination in 2022. The Cyprus Papers Undercover was nominated for a BAFTA the earlier yr.