South suspends ‘golden passports’ scheme

SOUTH Cyprus has decided to suspend its controversial “golden passports” scheme following further damning allegations by Qatari news broadcaster Al Jazeera.

The initiative, which offers “Cypriot” citizenship – and a gateway to the European Union – to wealthy foreign investors, will cease on November 1 due to “weaknesses and abuses” in the system, the Greek Cypriot government announced this week.

The scheme was launched in 2013 in response to the economic crisis in South Cyprus and has raised billions of euros for the Greek Cypriot authorities since.

The latest instalment of the Al Jazeera investigation included undercover footage of Greek Cypriot officials appearing to offer to bypass vetting rules for a “fictitious investor with a supposed criminal record”.

The hidden cameras caught parliamentary speaker Demetris Syllouris and lawmaker Christakis Giovanis pledging “full support” to granting a passport to a fictitious Chinese investor, despite a money laundering conviction against him, according to the Associated Press.

The report also showed lawyer Andreas Pittadjis – who represented the British teenager involved in last year’s Ayia Napa “rape” case – real estate agents and others “outlining to a man posing as a representative for the Chinese investor different ways to skirt background checks, including a name change or granting citizenship through his wife”. Both Pittadjis and Giovanis denied the allegations against them, claiming they knew the approach was bogus and were just “playing along” so that they could report the matter to the police.

European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said: “We watched in disbelief how high-level officials were trading European citizenship for financial gains. European Commission president [Ursula] von der Leyen was clear when saying European values are not for sale.”

Last month CyprusToday reported how 30,000 Turkish Cypriots are being denied “Republic of Cyprus” passports, mainly because they have a non-Cypriot parent.