By Martin Hellicar
IMMIGRATION chief Christodoulos Nicolaides was yesterday suspended after police unearthed evidence which could link him to a network providing fake permits for foreign cabaret artistes. Interior Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou said the executive director of the Immigration department, Nikos Vakanas, was also being relieved of his duties for a three-month period.
Christodoulou said police chief Andreas Anggelides had recommended the two top civil servants be suspended pending completion of a police probe into an alleged work and residence permits scam.
The minister also said Nicolaides and Vakanas may have been guilty of receiving bribes and indicated the two could eventually face criminal charges.
“The (police) chief judged that it was necessary to suspend the Immigration chief and the executive director of the same department, concerning whom initial evidence has turned up that could implicate them in cases of illegal residence and employment of foreigners in Cyprus,” the minister said yesterday.
“The offences under investigation… are criminal offenses. Furthermore, there are claims about possible bribe-taking,” Christodoulou stated at a 1.30pm press briefing.
Three top police officers were recently appointed to probe claims that members of the force and others in positions of influence abetted underworld prostitution rings by participating in a network furnishing cabaret artistes with fake permits.
Christodoulou said the police chief had informed him of his two subordinates’ possible misdemeanours in a letter he received on Wednesday.
He said Anggelides wanted to ensure Nicolaides and Vakanas were in no position to influence investigations.
But the minister also said the two could be back in their offices before their three-month suspension was over – if investigators cleared them.
The director general of the Interior Ministry, Andreas Panayiotou, has been appointed acting Immigration chief.
Earlier in the day, the government was hotly denying allegations that President Clerides himself was linked to a fake permits scam.
The astonishing claims were made live on state television on Wednesday night by the former organisational secretary of governing Disy, Andreas Tsangarides.
Tsangarides is one of a number of prominent figures under investigation for alleged involvement in the permits scam.
He alleged Clerides had, during a top-level Disy meeting, described a top immigration officer as “difficult.” Tsangarides said what the President had meant was that the officer refused to bend the rules to serve those in power.
“The President of the Republic never, but never, intervened towards or partook in any deals concerning such issues,” was the response from Government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou.
Papapetrou lambasted Tsangarides for seeking to defend himself by tarnishing others.
“The President is not about to make any statements at this juncture concerning the manner in which persons under investigation chose to defend themselves,” he said.
The spokesman also attacked the media for giving air-time to Tsangarides.
“The question that has to be asked is how, during an ongoing investigation, time is given to such persons to make statements and comments in the media. I think there are certain rules in every civilised society, and they must be applied in Cyprus too,” Papapetrou told his daily press briefing.
Tsangarides also levelled accusations at both Christodoulou and his predecessor, Dinos Michaelides. He said they were guilty of issuing “hundreds” of fake permits.
Michaelides quit his post in the face of persistent – if unproven – corruption allegations. These included charges that he had accepted bribes to arrange permits.
Christodoulou denied Tsangarides’s allegations yesterday, saying he was “surprised” by his outburst.
Tsangarides also told state channel CyBC that senior Disy members routinely tried to secure favours from the immigration department.
Tsangarides denied involvement in the permits scandal, saying he was the victim of a slur campaign.
At the House labour committee yesterday, Diko deputy Nicos Pittokopitis made his own “revelations” concerning the securing of fake permits for foreign women.
The Paphos deputy said many local men were getting involved in “illegal” relationships with foreign women and then turning to underworld networks to secure permits for them to stay.
“Many, who have established illegal relationships with Russian, Ukranian and Moldovian women and women of every creed, race or origin, have got them permits and passports through these networks so they can keep them and stay in Cyprus in the most blatant manner,” he said.
The outspoken deputy said he had forwarded his suggestions for dealing with the matter to the government but had got no response.
