Lawyer Andreas Pittadjis, who played a central role in a documentary published by news company Al Jazeera over the alleged illegal naturalisations of people as citizens of the Republic of Cyprus, on Thursday lost an appeal against a fine of €4,000 he had received from the lawyers’ disciplinary council over his social media use.

The council had found that a post he had published on Facebook in 2021 was “incompatible with the profession” and “violated his obligation to adhere to the basic principles of the profession”.

It was said that Pittadjis had acted “in a contemptuous manner towards third parties” and had aired to the public “details of their personal lives without prior consent”, as well as potentially revealing the commission of criminal offences without first contacting the police.

He had appealed the ruling, saying the council’s composition was “illegal and defective” and that it had “attributed an incorrect interpretation to the facts and information” revealed in the post.

However, the appeals court found that Pittadjis’ appeal was “in no way justified based on the facts” and agreed that his behaviour was “incompatible with the profession”.

As such, he deemed that “the imposition of a fine of €4,000, one fifth of the maximum provided for, cannot be considered a heavy fine”. However, in the end, he stopped short of raising the fine’s level to its maximum of €20,000.

Pittadjis had gained infamy as a result of the Al Jazeera documentary after quipping “this is Cyprus” upon being asked by an undercover reporter if he had previously changed a client’s name on a Cypriot passport issued to them.

He was charged with a litany of corruption-related offences in the wake of the documentary’s airing, but all charges against him were dropped in 2023.

Al Jazeera aired an almost hour-long expose of the scandal in October 2020. In the documentary, undercover reporters played the role of agents acting on behalf of a fictional Chinese businessman with a criminal record, aiming to secure him Cypriot citizenship.

Pittadjis, alongside former House President Demetris Syllouris and former Akel MP Christakis Giovani and others were shown offering to help the man in his quest for citizenship despite his criminal record.

Syllouris and Giovani resigned from their posts shortly thereafter.

The government of the day then scrapped Cyprus’ citizenship by investment scheme, with the European Union having launched legal proceedings over claims the scheme had been used to sell passports to dubious individuals.

A subsequent inquiry found that 53 per cent of 6,779 citizenships granted through the scheme were unlawful, with the government since having commenced the process of cancelling the citizenship of some naturalised through the scheme.