Bride-for-sale ring busted

POLICE said yesterday they had busted a crime ring organising marriages of convenience between local women and foreigners seeking residency permits.

Eight women have been arrested and a further 19 warrants were issued for suspicion of taking part in marriages of convenience and for attempting to cover-up an offence. The suspects are women and men, Cypriot and non-Cypriot.

Seven of the women arrested are Cypriot, and they are aged between 33 and 50 years old.

According to the Greek Cypriot daily Phileleftheros, which ran the story yesterday, the women had been named by an eighth person who was already in remand and who is suspected of being a matchmaker whose job was to locate “brides”.

Police suspect that another person, who found prospective husbands wishing to gain permanent residency in Cyprus, is also involved

A “couple”, claimed Phileleftheros, would meet for the first time during a short civil marriage ceremony and would disappear in different directions as soon as it was over.

The Cypriot women received up to £1,500 to tie the knot with a stranger and the matchmaker earning up to £5,000, paid for by the immigrants in return for gaining Cypriot residency, police said.

The eight women arrested, who have confessed, were charged and released.

But, claims that the CID Headquarters have evidence pointing to the marriages taking place at the Aradippou Municipality were downplayed yesterday by a police spokesman.

“Some of the fake marriages took place at the Aradippou Municipality, but not all of them.”

And even if they had, said the spokesman, that didn’t mean the Municipality’s officials were aware of the scam. “The police have only just started uncovering this ring , so it wasn’t something that was public knowledge.”

The Municipality yesterday refused to comment.

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.