Dud dollars trial set for January

TWO Lebanese men suspected of circulating counterfeit $100 bills will go on trial at Larnaca Assizes on January 8.

Rakha Jaafar pleaded guilty before the Larnaca District Court yesterday to tendering two fake $100 bills in a Larnaca shop. His compatriot Andrios Kossifi is suspected of acting as an accomplice to Jaafar by driving him to the shop.

Police believe the two men brought 21 fake bills into the island, but Jaafar has told the court he only said he had brought that many notes into the country when faced with intimidating police interrogation.

Jaafar said he bought three $100 bills in good faith in Lebanon – one of which he later lost in Cyprus.

The two suspects were released on £10,000 bail on condition they report to their nearest police station daily until their trial.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.