The government on Wednesday announced it had revoked the Cypriot citizenship of eight people who were naturalised under Cyprus’ citizenship through investment programme, commonly known as the ‘golden passport’ scheme.

While the identities of the eight people were not disclosed, the government said it included investors and their dependents.

The revocations come as a “massive amount” of evidence was reportedly gathered by investigators looking into “suspicious” naturalisations as part of a case against former Transport Minister Marios Demetriades.

Demetriades served under former President Nicos Anastasiades between 2014 and 2018, and has been charged with offences related to corruption, bribery, and money laundering.

The interim findings of an investigation into the ‘golden passport’ scheme in 2021 had found that a total of 137 naturalisations which had been promoted by a law firm linked to Demetriades had been given the nod at cabinet meetings he had attended.

Wednesday’s revocations are the first since June, when the government had revoked the citizenships of Russian-Ukrainian billionaire and art collector Konstantin Grigorishin and oligarch Igor Kesaev.

Grigorishin and Kesaev had both been naturalised during late President Demetris Christofias’ term in office, between 2008 and 2013.