Police on Wednesday arrested three suspects, two being members of former ruling party AKEL, in connection with a suspicious land deal involving the pension fund of state telecommunications company CyTA.
According to the Cyprus News Agency, police detained Venizelos Zanettos, a member of the party’s secretariat and financial controller, and Christos Alecou, a member of the secretariat.
The third suspect is businessman Antonis Ioakim, reportedly a shareholder of the company involved in the €20.5 million deal concerning land in Dromolaxia, Larnaca.
The three are expected to be brought before court on Thursday for a remand hearing.
The land deal in question involved the purchase by CyTA’s pension fund of office space near Larnaca airport at a price reportedly several times the going market value.
Allegations have surfaced that millions were paid in kickbacks to make the deal possible.
Wednesday’s arrests follow those of CyTA chairman Stathis Kittis, senior CyTA employee Yiannis Souroullas and his brother Gregoris, who works for the land registry, and union rep Orestis Vassiliou.
All four are suspected of receiving hundreds of thousands of euros in kickbacks.
Last week, a court heard that Kittis and an unnamed AKEL MP had received one million euros each in kickbacks.
Prosecutors have already charged businessman Nicos Lillis and two police officers, Costas Miamiliotis and Lefteris Mouskou, in connection with the case.
The officers allegedly produced a false report saying the Turkish Cypriot seller of the land had resided in the government-controlled areas for six months – a necessary condition — prior to selling the land.
Lillis and the two officers were scheduled to appear before the criminal court on Wednesday but the attorney-general withdrew the case and referred it to the district court instead.
The maximum custodial sentence imposed by district courts is five years.
The three along with Wadnic, a company belonging to Lillis, now face 18 charges, instead of the original 19, but of similar nature.
They include conspiracy to defraud, bribery, abuse of power, and money laundering.
The case was set for November 4.
It was suggested that moving the case to the district court was part of a deal to get Lillis to testify against the others but there was no official confirmation.
To AKEL however, this was exactly what it meant.
AKEL spoke of a conspiracy aimed at hurting the party and diverting attention from the country’s real problems.
Party leader Andros Kyprianou said the intention to turn Lillis from a defendant into a prosecutor was obvious and there was a serious possibility of him receiving a lighter sentence.
“Instead of asking for a statement to get the AKEL officials’ version, police issued arrest warrants, a shameful practice for a democratic and European country,” Kyprianou said in a written statement.
He urged party members to remain calm in the face of the “attack” and vowed that AKEL would defend itself and any of its members who were unjustly prosecuted.
“Rest assured that no conspiracy will succeed in hurting AKEL,” Kyprianou said. “Our party will emerge strong and united from this procedure.”
