President Nikos Christodoulides “insulted” the Turkish Cypriots with his statements over the detention of five Greek Cypriots in the north, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said on Sunday.

In a written statement, he said Christodoulides branding the decision of the courts in the north as “piracy” is “a blatant insult to the Turkish Cypriot people and their independent judiciary”.

He said such statements reflect “a mentality that rejects mutual respect, equality and the rule of law.”

On Saturday night, Christodoulides described the arrests as “an illegal, a pirate, a fascist decision of the occupation regime.

“I would like to urge our Greek Cypriot compatriots who deem it necessary to go to the occupied territories to be doubly and triple careful, especially at this time when we are witnessing this piratical behaviour on the part of the occupying regime.”

The five individuals were arrested after visiting properties in Trikomo and have been accused of spying and were told on Friday they would spend 13 more days in custody.

But Tatar accused Christodoulides of “creating and exacerbating tensions by serving his own agendas” and of “deliberately implementing a policy of arrest and intimidation”, especially after every constructive contact they have with the secretary general of the United Nations.

This approach, he argued, “threatens the Turkish Cypriot people and targets our justice, clearly reveals their true intentions.”

Tatar said it was widely known that the Greek Cypriot leadership has for a long time “been illegally collecting information, documents and technical data from our country to strengthen its hostile policies.”

This data, he added, is used in courts by the police.

He added the Greek Cypriot side adopts a hostile mentality and uses international law enforcement mechanisms as a means of pressure against the Turkish Cypriots and circumvents the IPC is not new.

Tatar said the mentality “constitutes a policy of terror, based on fear and oppression.”