Cyprus court postpones ‘golden passports’ trial after 25 new charges
In Nicosia, Cyprus, the hearing in the case involving the so-called ‘golden passports’, in which former Transport Minister Marios Demetriades and nine other defendants are implicated, was postponed after prosecutors added 25 new counts. The hearing had been due to begin on Monday, Cyprus Mail reports.
New charges
The Nicosia Permanent Criminal Court set September 23 for defence lawyer Elias Stefanou’s response to the new charges. The substantive hearing of the case was postponed until October 19.
The new counts concern five of the ten defendants. Lawyer Haris Karaolidou told the court that they had been delivered to the defence lawyers the previous day and were formally submitted to the court on Monday. According to her, they relate to the same events already covered by the previous charges and are based on evidence previously gathered by prosecutors.
Karaolidou also stated that adding further counts at an early stage of the proceedings would not place the defendants at a disadvantage. The court granted the prosecution’s request to call three additional witnesses.
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Defence position
Demetriades’ lawyer, Petros Stavrou, did not object to supplementing the indictment, as none of the new counts concerns his client. At the same time, Elias Stefanou noted that the investigation began in 2021 and that the original indictment was filed in September 2024. He questioned the reasons for adding new charges two years later.
According to Stefanou, most of the added counts are based on existing allegations that his clients obtained citizenship registration through false representation of information. However, he described three new counts concerning alleged money laundering linked to the transactions of three investors as being of an entirely different nature.
Case details
Eight individuals and two companies are accused in the case. The charges include influence peddling, bribery, extortion, conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.
An interim investigation in 2021 concluded that 137 naturalisations promoted by a law firm linked to Demetriades were approved at government meetings in which he participated as transport minister in 2014–2018. Demetriades denies wrongdoing and says he has been made a “scapegoat”.
