Cyprus vindicated in LEFCO case

By Constantinos Psillides

A LONDON court has ruled in favour of the Cyprus Republic in the case against the Italian security-related electronics manufacturing company Selex SI, awarding the state €20m in bank guarantees, a source close to the case told the Cyprus Mail.

Selex SI was commissioned by the state to deliver in 2005 an at the time state-of-the-art air-traffic control system. Negotiations with the company stretch as far back as 1998.

While the company did eventually deliver, the system was deemed outdated and the state was forced to scrap the whole operation and lay the blame with the company. The state demanded that the company uphold the contract and relinquish the bank guarantees stipulated in the agreement. The company refused and took the case to court.

It is estimated that the state spent €9m on the case, €5.5m of which went to legal fees and €3.5m in training personnel to use the LEFCO system.

The court also ruled that the company is to remove its equipment from a facility at the Kokkinotrimithia area, west of Nicosia, that has been custom-built to house the air-traffic control system.

The building and the equipment have been sitting at the facility for the last eight years, unused.

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.