Extradited Turkish Cypriot lawyer to arrive on Thursday

Turkish Cypriot lawyer Akan Kursat, wanted for selling Greek Cypriot properties in the north, is set to arrive on Thursday, it emerged on Wednesday, as two investigators were due in Italy to bring him back.

Two investigators were sent to Rome to collect Kursat, who was arrested on New Year’s Eve at his hotel in Rome on a 2007 European arrest warrant related to property sales in 2004-2005 in the village of Klepini in Kyrenia.

Earlier this week, police had confirmed that Kursat would be extradited to Cyprus.

Kursat gave his consent last Thursday to be returned to Cyprus to face justice, after he initially rejected the extradition request last month on the basis that the central prisons were an unsafe location.

He told the court he would not be safe in a Cypriot prison, as a Turkish Cypriot detainee had been killed in 2022.

Kursat was arrested based on a European arrest warrant for the exploitation and sale of Greek Cypriot property in the north.

The warrant was related to property sales in Kyrenia in 2004-2005, where his office acted as the representative for British con man Gary Robb, who extorted millions out of Britons looking to buy property in the village of Klepini. The properties were never completed.

British con man Robb had been convicted in Cyprus and sentenced to ten months in prison by a Cypriot court after he was extradited for selling Greek Cypriot land to Britons.

The British police estimate that some 400 Britons lost a total of over €40 million in deals made with AGA Development.

It is alleged that Robb received between £5,000 and £10,000 a week from the drug trade in England and then sent this money to the north.