Former north ‘PM’ Siber remanded in fake prescriptions scandal

Former Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Sibel Siber was remanded in custody for three days on Friday after having been arrested in the ongoing “fake prescriptions” scandal.

Siber, a doctor by trade, appeared in the northern Nicosia district court alongside a pharmacist to whom she had written 388 prescriptions between January and August, 13 of which were found to be fraudulent.

Two ‘MPs’ from Siber’s party the CTP, Filiz Besim and Sila Usar Incirli, were also present in court to watch the case unfold. Both are also doctors, and Besim was ‘health minister’ between 2018 and 2019.

In court, Siber admitted she wrote some prescriptions without seeing patients and took cash payments for doing so.

Meanwhile, court reporters noted stricter than usual measures being taken by police.

Journalist Pinar Barut said, “there are strict controls, they are checking to see if everyone’s phones are switched off, and they have also changed the courtroom.”

She later claimed journalists were refused entry to the courtroom, saying “the police didn’t let the press in when they entered the courtroom. CTP members are inside, relatives are inside, the journalists who have been following this case from the beginning and doing public duty are outside!”

She said only one journalist, from news agency Tak, was eventually allowed to enter the courtroom, and that police were demanding photographers delete photographs they had taken from their cameras.

Sibel is one of around 40 doctors and pharmacists who have been arrested in relation to the scandal, while police have also found numerous bin bags across the north full of prescription medications with their barcodes scrubbed off.

Arrests relating to the scandal have become a daily occurrence in the north in recent weeks, with Siber being the most high-profile figure arrested thus far.

She served as the north’s first female ‘prime minister’ between June and September 2013, before spending just over four years as ‘parliament speaker’ between 2013 and 2018.

In 2015, she became the first woman to run for Turkish Cypriot leader, winning the nomination of political party CTP, finishing in third place and winning 23 per cent of the vote.