Nothing to stop refugees selling property in north to foreigners

DISY DEPUTY Giorgos Georgiou yesterday continued the debate over illegal property transactions by saying there was nothing in the law that deterred Cypriots from selling their property companies in the north to foreigners.

According to Georgiou, the reason that he chose to give his list of high-profile names of Greek Cypriots involved in such transactions to the Interior Minister and not the Attorney-general was because there was nothing in the law that stopped this from taking place.“There is no legislation that stops Cypriot companies that were established before 1974 in the north from selling their shares to anyone in particular from abroad. Nothing,” Georgiou told state radio yesterday.

In a dramatic day regarding the issue of Greek Cypriot property in the north on Thursday, Georgiou told the House of Representatives that he had evidence and names that when publicised, would “give a lot of people heart attacks”.

The DISY deputy said that economic factors were also involved, while he also claimed another plot, where Greek Cypriot land developers were working in association with Turkish Cypriots and foreigners to sell the properties of refugees.“There are developers working in conjunction with illegal offices in the north and we have had a number of allegations from refugees who claim that they have been approached by these people who told them that they can put them in touch with foreign companies that can sell their properties,” he added.

According to the newly appointed Government Spokesman, Vasilis Palmas, this phenomenon was not new to the government.“This is not something that has come to light today, it is something that has been happening for some time now. It is up to the people to judge these actions but I have to say that only with the solution to the Cyprus problem will this stop,” he said. DIKO party leader Marios Karoyian said yesterday that politicians in Cyprus should refrain from making such shock statements at the House if they have not been substantiated.“Comments on this matter especially should not be made without them being verified.

The danger of this is that the wrong messages are given about abroad,” he commented. Meanwhile the British High Commission yesterday denied it had ever advised a Greek Cypriot refugee to take his claim to the property commission in the north.

According to refugee from Yerolakkos, British officials had told him to appeal to the commission and to act in secrecy when doing so.Yesterday, the British High Commission released a statement denying that their staff told anyone to appeal to the commission, adding that given the perplexity of the issue, they advised people to seek legal advice.

Attorney-general Petros Clerides said that while a fuss should not be made about the issue just yet, there were questions that remained unanswered.“This needs to be looked into in order to determine whether these are just the actions of an irresponsible individual, in which case he would have a host of questions to answer to, or whether it is the policy of the British High Commission,” he said.

“On the other hand, there is the question on why the refugee contacted the British High Commission and not the Cypriot authorities.”