Nicosia courts on British territory ‘just a smokescreen’

HOUSE Finance Committee head Nicholas Papadopoulos and British High Commission spokesman Paul Lakin could not confirm yesterday whether the Nicosia District Courts are ‘British territory’.

The issue arose on Tuesday at the House Finance Committee when the Land Registry Office said it had objections to any renovations and expansion of the courts due to a question of whether the land was actually returned from the British when Cyprus gained its independence in 1960.

“I don’t think it’s an issue, I think it’s just an excuse because they [the government] just don’t have the money [for the expansion],” said Papadopoulos.

“The last time they told us that the Antiquities Department had objections” he added.

Papadopoulos said it had been 15 years since a decision was taken to upgrade the courts.

Lakin said that the British High Commission had not been approached, and he had only heard about it through the media.

According to Sovereign Base Areas (SBA) spokesman Stuart Bardsley, who also said he had not heard anything on the issue, there is no sovereign British territory in Nicosia, apart from the standard diplomatic ones such as the High Commission.

“They should just tell us if they don’t have the money,” said Papadopoulos. He said there was no way the land on which the courts stand do not belong to the Republic.

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.