By Martin Hellicar
A TURKISH national was yesterday sentenced to six-and-a-half years imprisonment for spying on National Guard positions for “Turkish interests”.
Forty-five-year-old Nejip Sari Cicekli pleaded guilty before Limassol Assizes to four charges of spying and photographing restricted military areas between August 1994 and February 1997.
The court heard that Cicekli, a Turkish settler married to a Turkish Cypriot and resident in Limassol since 1982, had confessed to police that he was paid £2,500 by Turkish agents to spy on National Guard positions.
“For a considerable period of time the accused took instructions from his associates and carried out espionage, conveying information which, by its nature, places the safety and interests of the Cyprus Republic at risk,” the three-bench court stated in its decision.
The ruling said the people who recruited Cicekli were also after information about where the Russian-made S-300 missiles would be deployed after delivery.
When Cicekli was arrested on March 8, police said they found documents relating to Greek Cypriot military hardware, video footage of military positions and military maps in his car.
The Assizes imposed a sentence of six-and-a-half years on two counts of spying, and four years for taking photographs of restricted positions. The sentences will run concurrently.
Father-of-two Cicekli faced a maximum of 10 years for spying and six years for taking photographs in restricted areas, but the court said his co- operation with police after his arrest was a mitigating factor.
Cicekli’s lawyer, Turkish Cypriot Ali Dana, had also argued that the information conveyed to the Turkish side by his client was not top secret, but rather what he had got off the radio, television and newspapers or by going to public debates or through conversations at coffee shops. Dana also claimed Cicekli had been blackmailed into spying.
Cicekli had originally pleaded not guilty to the spying charges, but Dana said he changed his plea because he believed he would be convicted regardless.
Two other suspected spies, both Turkish Cypriots, were arrested with Cicekli in March.
The Turkish Cypriots were released without charge two weeks later, but one of them was shot dead in Limassol six months later, on August 16.
Thirty-eight-year-old fisherman Dijan Nejip Hakkemes was gunned down in the Turkish Cypriot neighbourhood of the town by a hooded gunman. No one has been arrested in connection with the killing.
