Three arrested Greek Cypriots released on bail in north

Three of the five Greek Cypriots who were arrested in the north in July were released on bail on Wednesday.

All five appeared at a military court in Nicosia, where the police and the prosecution allege that when the five crossed in one car from the British Dhekelia base through the Strovilia crossing point, near Famagusta, only four identity cards were handed over for inspectionon the Turkish Cypriot side of the crossing point.

As such, one of the five Greek Cypriots has been charged with illegally entering the north, while the other four are accused of aiding and abetting the illegal entry.

Their release on bail comes after the north’s supreme court ruled last Friday that the remand handed down to them by the military court during the early hours of August 2 was illegal.

Since August 2, the five have been held at the north’s central prison, near the Nicosia district village of Neo Chorio.

The court on Wednesday ordered that they be released on a bail worth 200,000TL (€4,139) and that they surrender their travel documents so as to not be able to leave the north until the conclusion of their trial.

Meanwhile, newspaper Yeniduzen’s Ertugrul Senova, who was present in court on Wednesday, said that at some point during the day’s proceedings, one defence lawyer had asked the police representative in court whether the Turkish Cypriot police has at its disposal the details of people who had helped to bring about the arrest and trial of Israeli property developer Simon Aykut in the Republic.

Aykut had been arrested last summer and remains on trial in Nicosia, accused of developing and selling €43 million worth of property on Greek Cypriot-owned land in the north, some of which is located in the village of Gastria, near Trikomo, where the five Greek Cypriots were arrested on July 19.

Senova said the police representative had told the court they do have the details at their disposal, and that someone sharing the name of one of the five defendants, the 68-year-old man, was present on the Turkish Cypriot police’s list.

Then, he said, the lawyer asked whether it is possible that they could have arrested the 68-year-old man on the basis of his name, when in fact, he is not the same person as the person on the police’s list, and that the police denied this.

Two people sharing the 68-year-old man’s surname have thus far testified against Aykut, though both are women.

The first was land registry officer Chrysovalanto Kyprianou, who told the court in July how the Republic of Cyprus keeps land registry records related to the north.

The second was Maria Mylona Kyprianou, who told the court on Tuesday that “a company with foreign interests was developing a plot of land” which belonged to her mother, without her approval.

Newspaper Ozgur Gazete’s editor-in-chief Pinar Barut, meanwhile, said that earlier in the day’s hearing, Hasan Ozguc, the case’s investigating officer, had been called as a witness.

She said Ozguc had told the court that he had received a complaint that a car with Greek Cypriot registration plates had entered a “tourist area” in the village of Bogazi, which is located between Trikomo and Gastria, and that the car’s occupants were “wandering around with a blue folder in their hands”.

This, he said, had “caused discomfort”, and he had dispatched a police officer to deal with the matter.

He said the officer had stopped the vehicle in front of a petrol station and taken the five Greek Cypriots to a police station, before their vehicle was searched and the blue folder was found in its boot.

Then, he said, he demanded an explanation from the five, who “all gave the same answer” – that they were visiting property which one of the five, the 68-year-old man, “had inherited from his father”.

He added that the 68-year-old man had told him that they “do this all the time” and that “there had been no problems before”.

Barut also said that those who filed complaints to the police about the five Greek Cypriots were all well-known names in the Turkish Cypriot construction industry.

The two Greek Cypriots who were not released on bail are subject to a three-month remand handed down bya civilian court in Trikomo in July. There, the five stand accused of privacy violations, trespassing and breaching the peace.

However, as those charges were only brought against three of the Greek Cypriots on August 21 and a new remand was not sought at the time, only two of them are impacted by the original remand.

That remand was also ruled illegal by the north’s supreme court on Monday, and as such, it is now expected that the remaining two Greek Cypriots will be released on bail on Friday.

In Trikomo, the five stand accused of privacy violations, trespassing and breaching the peace.