Huseyin Tufekci, the director of Turkish Cypriot construction company the Tufekci Group, was arrested on Wednesday, accused of forging documents to win a tender for the construction of the north’s new central bank.

The north’s tender commission put a tender out for the construction of a new central bank last week, with an estimated price of exactly 785,034,463TL (around €21 million).

Tufekci appeared in court later on Wednesday, where a police representative said he had altered his company’s balance sheet on the form submitted to the commission by listing the sale of 12 real estate properties as having taken place in 2022, when the properties had actually been sold in 2017.

The representative added that one other company had submitted a bid for the tender, and that Tufekci’s bid file was taken as evidence.

He added that a total of 15 statements have thus far been taken and that 20 more are yet to be taken, before requesting that Tufekci be remanded in custody for two days.

The court acquiesced, and Tufekci will next appear in court on Friday.