New anti-corruption protest being held on Friday

The ‘End Corruption!’ platform will be staging another demonstration outside the presidential palace on Friday, protesting against the government’s handling of the citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programme which, it says, has undermined credibility in Cyprus institutions here and overseas.

The self-styled anti-corruption platform – a loose grouping of disparate groups and activists organising online – will be gathering outside the presidential palace at around 6.30pm.

In a press release, the group voiced disappointment and dismay at the fact that within the space of 22 days in October the government accepted another 827 applications for citizenship by foreign nationals under the CBI.

Earlier, and under fire from the European Commission and elsewhere, the government had announced on October 10 the termination of the CBI by November 1, and that no new applications would be accepted past that date.

According to the anti-corruption platform, the interior ministry has since released data showing that between October 10 and October 31, 827 new applications were filed. By comparison, only 176 applications were filed in the entire period from January through to October.

What raises a big red flag, they said, is that on October 23 Interior Minister Nicos Nouris tweeted that just six applications were filed by that day since October 10 – when the government said it would scrap the programme.

Meaning, that 821 of the 827 new applications must have been filed from October 23 and October 31 – within just five working days.

“Tolerance for the advertising of passport sales, and the non-transparent manner in which the interior ministry is handling the matter, serves to confirm our view that the government not only does not want to mend its ways, but is trying until the last to promote the interests of politically exposed persons and their families, to the detriment of the Cypriot people as a whole.”

 

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.