Greek Cypriot administration suspends its citizenship for cash programme

Greek Cypriot administration has scrapped a lucrative programme granting citizenship to wealthy investors amid new allegations that a top state official and a veteran lawmaker were implicated in attempts to bypass strict vetting rules and issue a passport to a fictitious investor with a supposed criminal record.

Greek Administration of Southern Cyprus said it was suspending a controversial citizenship for investment programme on Tuesday following reports of abuses of a system that gives the rich a passport and visa-free travel throughout the EU.

Criticism of the programme reached a head after the Al Jazeera network secretly filmed a state official, a lawmaker and a lawyer apparently attempting to help an imaginary Chinese investor, with a criminal record, get a passport.

A criminal record should disqualify a candidate.

Several news outlets, including Reuters, have carried reports in the past two years on a scheme where thousands of foreign investors with deep pockets have leapfrogged over normally arduous citizenship processes, including for persons born on the island.

Parliament speaker to abstain from duties

Parliamentary speaker Demetris Syllouris, seen in the video apparently offering to use his influence in getting the investor a passport, and suggesting alternatives if that failed, said he would be standing down from his duties from October 19.

Syllouris, 67, is the second-highest-ranking official in Greek Cypriot administration after Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades.

He said he would withdraw until an investigation was complete.

"I would like to publicly apologise for this unpleasant image conveyed to the Cypriot public ... And any upset it may have caused," he said in a statement.

Syllouris has previously said he suspected something was amiss with the imaginary investor but was fishing for information. He said the reports were "staged" and out of context.

The suspension of the programme, in its current form, would take effect from Nov. 1, administration spokesman Kyriakos Koushos told journalists after an emergency session of the island's cabinet.

For a minimum investment of 2 million euros, the scheme would guarantee visa-free travel in the European Union, which Greek Cypriot administration joined in 2004.

Criticised as opaque and fraught with the risk of money-laundering, the scheme is popular with Russians, Ukrainians and, more recently, Chinese and Cambodians.

The persons filmed in the documentary claimed entrapment and said they had reported the matter to authorities months ago.

Reports

Reuters reported in October 2019 that Cambodians close to longtime leader Hun Sen, plus family members, had acquired passports, leading authorities to review the programme.

Another report by Al Jazeera in August this year said at least 60 individuals who acquired citizenship between 2017 and 2019 were high risk, and would probably not have qualified with new tighter rules since introduced.

At the time, authorities dismissed that report as "propaganda", focussing instead on trying to find the whistleblower. 

'European values are not for sale'

European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said the bloc's executive body is looking into launching infringement proceedings against Greek Cypriot administration.

“We watched in disbelief how high-level officials were trading European citizenship for financial gains,” Wigand told reporters in Brussels. European Commission “President (Ursula) von der Leyen was clear when saying European values are not for sale.”

Wigand said the Commission had frequently raised concerns about such investor citizenship schemes and also directly with Cypriot authorities.

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Divided island

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Greek Cypriot coup was followed by violence against the island's Turks and Ankara's intervention as a guarantor power.

It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the UK.

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