The trial of former Transport Minister Marios Dimitriadis on charges of illegally issuing passports under the 'citizenship for investment' programme has been postponed until 21 May.
It was announced on Friday 25 April that the prosecution had asked for two additional weeks to prepare witnesses and materials requested by the defence. The court granted the request.
It should be noted that in addition to Marios Demetriades, seven other individuals and two companies are accused in the case: Andreas Demetriades, Dimitris Demetriades, Yorgos Demetriades, Eleni Simillidi, Jing Wang, Joseph Friedrich Santin, Vasiliki Georgiou-Santin, as well as Andreas Demetriades & Co LLC and Delsk (Cyprus) Business Services Ltd. They face 59 charges of corruption, bribery and money laundering.
According to investigators, the law firm, which is owned by the former minister's father, acted as an intermediary in almost 300 cases of granting Cypriot citizenship under an investment scheme. The firm's clients include Chinese and Cambodian nationals. Positive decisions were taken at cabinet meetings in which Marios Dimitriadis was directly involved. At the same time, 137 'golden' passports were processed by a law firm linked to the former minister.
In September, Dimitriadis said he had been made a 'scapegoat' and insisted that all his actions had been scrutinised for three years without any irregularities being found. He expressed confidence that the truth would eventually prevail.
For three years, my personal, family and professional life, as well as all my political decisions, have been scrutinised, but no errors have been found. I believe in the best and I am sure that in the end truth and justice will prevail," Dimitriadis stressed.
It should be remembered that a major scandal broke out on 12 October following a report by the Qatari television channel Al Jazeera.
The video showed senior officials agreeing to grant Cypriot citizenship to a Chinese investor who had been sentenced in absentia by the Chinese authorities to seven years in prison for corruption, money laundering and bribery.
Cyprus has set up a special committee to investigate the high-profile scandal. In parallel, the country's Auditor General has been conducting an independent investigation, which, for reasons unknown, has been repeatedly blocked. A series of public hearings were held on the island. Finally, on 22 June 2021, the final report of the committee of inquiry headed by Myron Nicolatos into the illegal issuance of golden passports was published. The 780-page dossier was heavily redacted. The names and some personal details of investors were removed for security reasons.
A lengthy investigation revealed a number of irregularities. Under pressure from the international community, the Cypriot authorities were forced to close the scheme on 1 November.