Cypra employee investigation not hushed up, police tells Perdikis

A joint statement by the police and customs office on Sunday aimed to set straight allegations by Green’s MP Giorgos Perdikis who suggested an investigation on a Cypra employee who smuggled cigarettes from the north was hushed up.

Cypra slaughterhouse is in the midst of a nationwide scandal after it recently recorded 92 Covid-19 cases. Investigations revealed 79 workers were asylum workers without work permits.

The owner is the husband of the state treasurer Rea Georgiou who denies any wrongdoing. Her brother is the auditor of her husband’s companies which prompted more conflict of interest allegations as she also sits on public audit oversight board.

Perdikis posted on twitter a question to the chief of police asking what whether it was true that a Cypra employee had been investigated for smuggling and what the outcome of that investigation was. “Was it also covered up?”

Shortly afterwards, a joint statement by the police and customs office said that on August 12, 2019 the workplace and home of the individual in question were searched.

Officers found seven boxes containing various cigarette brands, another four packs of cigarettes and two boxes, containing tobacco in packs of five. Nothing was found in the man’s place of work.

All items had been smuggled from the north and were seized by the customs. The case was settled out of court with a €600 payment, the statement said.

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.