Italian mafioso declared persona non grata in north

A member of the Ndrangheta Marando who was living in the north was declared persona non grata by the north’s authorities on Wednesday.

The man, named as 76-year-old Sebastiano Claudio Saia, is reportedly wanted by the Italian authorities in connection with criminal activities in the Italian region of Calabria.

In its announcement in the official ‘government’ gazette, the north’s ‘government’ said Saia’s membership of the Ndrangheta “endangers public order, administrative order, or general morality, or arouses hostility against the people of the TRNC and against the state.”

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail on Wednesday, Saia said “do you really believe the corrupt government from occupied Cyprus are in danger because of me?

“After several years living there as a retired person, who got a certificate of good standing from the North Cyprus police, now I suddenly became [a threat to] the general morality of the people of the TRNC?” he asked.

He added that the north’s authorities are “liars in every domain”.

The north’s authorities also declared Russian national Oleg Serebryanskiy persona non grata. Serebryanskiy had travelled to the north after operating a clinic in Moscow without the appropriate licence or equipment, in which a patient died.

According to Russian media, Serebyanskiy has already been returned to the country, having been arrested on Monday after landing in Moscow on a flight from Turkey.

It is expected that Saia will also be returned to his country of origin.