Paphos mayor Phedonas Phedonos on Thursday confirmed that his town no longer has any ties to disgraced former United States Senator Bob Menendez, after the latter was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Wednesday night.

Phedonos told the Cyprus Mail that after having announced his intention to strip Menendez of his honorary citizenship of the town in July, the process of doing so was completed very quickly thereafter.

“We got to work to strip him of his citizenship as soon as he was convicted seven months ago. It was all complete then and we have nothing to do with him now,” he said.

However, the other Cypriot honour bestowed on Menendez, the Grand Cross of the Order of Makarios III – the highest honour in Cyprus – remains in his hands for now.

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis told the Cyprus Mail that at present, he is not aware of any plans to strip him of the honour.

“We have a busy programme right now with the Cyprus problem and other government actions. I am not aware of anything to do with Menendez. That does not mean nothing is being done, but nothing has been brought to my attention yet,” he said.

When Menendez was convicted in July, the government was caught somewhat off guard by a recipient of the Grand Cross of the Order of Makarios III later turning out to be a criminal.

“At the moment, we do not know what we will do about it. We do not have a process for stripping people of these honours,” a government source told the Cyprus Mail at the time.

However, it is not the first time a recipient of honours of the Order of Makarios III has later turned out to be an unsavoury character.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was presented with the Grand Collar of the Order of Makarios III by then Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades in 2017, with Putin’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov receiving the Grand Cross in 2020, a year before Menendez.

Mendez was sentenced in New York on Wednesday night, with judge Sidney Stein ordering that he begin his prison term on June 6, to allow him to attend his wife Nadine Mendez’s corruption trial, which is due to start in March.

“You were successful, powerful. You stood at the apex of our political system,” Stein said at the sentencing.

She added, “I don’t know what led you to commit these crimes”.

He had been convicted on all 16 counts he had faced in July, with the charges including bribery, obstructing justice, wire fraud, extortion and illegally acting as an agent of the Egyptian government.

He had helped steer billions of dollars in American aid to Egypt, with prosecutor Damian Williams describing Menendez’s actions as “politics for profit”. Menendez had received gold bars in exchange for the help he had given.

“His years of selling his office to the highest bidder have finally come to an end,” he added.

Menendez resigned from the Senate in August.

He was given the Grand Cross of the Order of Makarios III by Nicos Anastasiades in 2021, with Anastasiades saying he was “particularly pleased” to do so.

Anastasiades praised Menendez’s “key role” in advancing relations between Cyprus, Greece and the US, as well as other neighbouring countries.

Two years later, he was made an honorary citizen of Paphos, describing the town as “the historic city of Aphrodite, Archbishop Makarios, Saint Paul and the Supreme President of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association, Savvas Tsivikos.”