The Nicosia District Court is continuing its high-profile trial concerning the granting of Cypriot citizenship in exchange for investment, also known as the “golden passport” scheme.
On Wednesday, July 2, the prosecution's chief witness, police officer Chrysostomos Christou, gave key testimony. Christou led the investigation after Al Jazeera broadcast a scandalous hidden-camera video.
The footage showed former Parliament Speaker Demetris Syllouris and former AKEL MP Christakis Giovannis allegedly agreeing to assist in the naturalization of a foreigner with a questionable past. Both figures continue to insist on their innocence. Christou stated that the investigation covered dozens of incidents that went beyond what was shown in the documentary.
It revealed close ties between investors from China, the UK, and other countries and representatives of law firms, development companies, and political circles. The investigation focused on cases where procedures were deliberately simplified or ignored. The case files include dozens of hours of video recordings, electronic correspondence, printouts of bank transactions, and documents extracted from seized computers. One of the most high-profile cases involves an application for citizenship submitted by Nikolai Gornovsky, a former top Gazprom manager in Russia.
He obtained a Cypriot passport without undergoing standard checks, including biometric controls, after purchasing real estate through the Giovanis Group. Sixteen photos and 12 videos were selected from Giovanis's phone. Among them is footage from an official trip to China in November 2019 in which Gornovsky is seen with business representatives. Christou told the court that, shortly after the video was published, the law firm representing the defendants received letters from the defendants complaining about the report's content. However, after the video became public, the firm asked the police to investigate possible criminal offenses. The prosecution presented a written statement from Christou dated August 24, 2022 as evidence to support this claim.
In turn, defense attorney Chris Triantafyllides protested, pointing out that most of the presented information concerned charges that had already been dropped. He emphasized that this information could call into question the fairness of the trial at a later stage.
owever, Judge Yorgos Georgiadis emphasized the significant importance of Christou's testimony.
They shed light on the methods used in the investigation and the scope of the alleged violations, the judge said.
He emphasized that, even though some charges had been dropped, the facts presented in court helped establish the scope of the alleged corruption scheme. The court is still determining whether it is permissible to include evidence related to the dropped charges in the case. Up next are interviews with new witnesses and further investigation into the scheme that, according to the prosecution, undermined the rule of law on the island.