List of names to ‘shock a nation’

DISY deputy makes dramatic statement to HouseTHERE WERE dramatic scenes in the House yesterday as a DISY deputy claimed to have a list of high-profile names of people dealing in properties in the north.

The allegations came on the same day that Britain was accused of supporting the Property Commission in the north.DISY deputy Giorgos Georgiou yesterday claimed that his list of names would “give a number of people a heart attack”.

While refusing to be drawn on the identities on the list, Georgiou said he was going to hand it over to the Interior Minister and that it did not contain any deputies.

According to Georgiou, the evidence and names he had were so “scandalous” it would leave politicians and the Cypriot public in a state of shock.“I want to say that we have stirring evidence and names of shareholders in a company, set up in 1968 in the Cyprus Republic, that purchased 300 donums of land in Kyrenia,” he said yesterday.“These shock revelations will cause a lot of people to have heart attacks.”

The information is said to include evidence of companies based in the south involved in illegal transactions of Greek Cypriot property in the north and Turkish Cypriot properties in the south. Georgiou said the two owners of the specific company were British.

He said one of the owners he managed to contact maintained he was unaware that he was a shareholder in such a company.His claims come just a week after AKEL Deputy Aristofanis Georgiou said eight British MPs were involved in illegal property transactions in the north. It was also heard that since the north’s property commission was formed in November 2006, 7,512 foreigners applied for the right to buy property, with 2,560 of them being approved.

Aristofanis Georgiou added that there are still 4,590 applications pending while 230 have been withdrawn.The British High Commission yesterday released a statement denying the claims of a Greek Cypriot refugee permanently residing in the UK, who insists he was told by the a British diplomat to appeal to the property committee in the north.“As all Cypriot refugees wanting to find out the situation of their properties in the occupied areas, I called the British Embassy who told me to take my claim to the President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” the refugee told state television yesterday.

“He also told me to fill in the forms so that I can get compensation from the property committee in the north.”According to the refugee, the diplomat advised him to act in secrecy when he appealed to the committee.“He told me that he could not see the Cyprus problem being solved in the next few years, adding that if I sent the form to the committee I should do this in secrecy as I could be accused by the Cypriot government and the public of being a traitor,” he added.

The British High Commission in Nicosia yesterday released a statement denying the claim, saying that they underlined the danger in buying property in the occupied areas.

“We have never advised, do not advise and will not advise anyone to appeal to the Property Committee in the north. “Our travel documents are very clear, do not mention the Property Committee in the occupied areas and underline the dangers in buying property in north Cyprus,” yesterday’s statement read.