THE HOUSE Refugee Committee yesterday launched an investigation into allegations that Cypriot businessmen were illegally exploiting properties in the occupied areas.
AKEL deputy Aristophanis Georgiou, who brought the matter to public attention last week, yesterday tabled it before the parliamentary committee that he chairs.
Georgiou said he had information that a number of Greek and Turkish Cypriot businessmen were profiting from buying and selling Greek Cypriot properties in the Turkish-held areas in northern Cyprus.
He insisted that the government was aware of the “immoral and illegal actions” and challenged it to reveal any information it had about the matter.
But Interior Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou yesterday hit back arguing that he had “no concrete information about the issue” and calling on Georgiou, “if he has any information to give it to me or to the media.”
Christodoulou urged anyone who had evidence in relation to the alleged activities to submit it to him or bring it to public attention.
In a behind-closed-doors’ meeting yesterday, the Refugee Committee unanimously decided to look into the claims.
The committee vowed to put questions to the Interior and the Foreign ministries as well as to the Attorney-general’s office requesting information about the affair.
But Georgiou yesterday declined to give any names of businessmen allegedly involved in the shady transactions.
“Names will be revealed when our investigation produces some results,” he said.
Georgiou went on to charge that, “if I know something about this then the government knows too.”
The committee has also asked the Interior Minister to submit information about “the transfer of ownership titles of Turkish Cypriot properties in the government-controlled areas to Greek Cypriots living in the south,” said Georgiou.
The House already investigated the long-standing issue last year. Christodoulou vowed to collect and submit any new information there was on the matter to the Committee.
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