Greek Cypriot woman accused of smuggling Turkish boyfriend

A GREEK Cypriot woman, who was arrested on New Year’s Eve for trying to smuggle her Turkish illegal immigrant boyfriend into the south, was freed on a £1,000 bond yesterday.

The 24-year-old woman admitted in court that she had brought her 26-year boyfriend to her parents’ home on a number of occasions. “Everything I did, I did out of love for Mehmet,” she told the judge.

The young woman from Nicosia had met her immigrant boyfriend after the checkpoints opened in 2003. She often used to bring him to her parents’ home to stay the night. Her parents were aware of the relationship but unaware of the fact that he was an illegal immigrant, not a Turkish Cypriot.

However, when the 24-year-old attempted to cross with her boyfriend at the Ayios Dhometios checkpoint on New Year’s Eve, the officers on duty became aware of the man’s identity and arrested her and her lover.

She was taken to court and charged with providing asylum to an illegal immigrant. He was deported back to Turkey.

The woman appeared in court without the presence of a lawyer and admitted to conspiring with her lover on a number of occasions in order to transfer him from the north to the south. She also admitted that she knew that he was illegally residing on the island and that she provided him with asylum at her parents’ house.

Judge Nicos Yiapanas decided to release the woman on a £1,000 bond, subject to not breaking the law in a similar manner over the following two years.

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.