9 Defendants Cleared of All Charges in First Cyprus Golden Passports Trial
Five individuals as well as four legal entities, including a well-known Larnaca lawyer together with his business associates, stood trial following reports of being involved in granting Cypriot citizenship through the Golden Passport scheme in an unlawful way, AtoZSerwisPlus.comreports.
According to a report of In Cyprus, nine defendants were suspected of granting citizenship to an Iranian national who is included on Interpol’s wanted list, and his parents, by showing fake documents to authorities.
They faced 36 charges while the criminal court published a unanimous decision of a total of 252 pages.
“All charges shared the fact that the name T.N. was a false identity and the name M.E. was a real one, with the exception of charges 33 and 34, which dealt with a cover-up, and charges 36, which dealt with money laundering. However, the applicant for naturalization had a passport bearing the name T.N. from the Commonwealth of Dominica,” the Court pointed out in this regard.
The Court also stressed that in its judgment that the failure to present valid proof that the Commonwealth of Dominica passport in the name of T.N consisted of false information or was a forgery resulted in the failure to prove an element charge and thus the accused’s acquittal.
The main criteria for a document to be classified as a forgery under the purposes of the forgery offence, according to the Court, is that it appears to be something that is not in relation to the person who drew it up, which was not the case in the case of these nine suspects.
“It was never proven that the defendants or any of them knew T.N. was M.E./M.R. at the time they were charged with the offences. Furthermore, in relation to count 25, which was a forgery of an official document, the Court dismissed the charge on the grounds that the application for naturalization was not one of the official documents,” the Court noted.
Despite the fact that the Golden Passport scheme significantly contributed to the country’s economic sector, it was often criticized for permitting wealthy internationals to acquire citizenship in this country in an unlawful way.
An investigative report provided by Al Jazeera regarding Cyprus’ CIP program which permitted internationals to acquire citizenship in this country provided they made a specific amount of money contribution brought into light the fact that from this scheme also benefited criminals.
Such an investigative report by Al Jazeera called the Cyprus Papers led to the scrapping of the Cyprus Golden Passport scheme back in 2020.
