Ugur Tosunoglu, the son of Turkish Cypriot independent ‘MP’ Hasan Tosunoglu, was arrested in the north in connection with an ongoing investigation into the forging of documents to win a tender for the construction of the north’s new central bank building.

He appeared in court in northern Nicosia on Friday, with police representative Ugur Yildiran telling the court that Tosunoglu had been arrested for “putting into circulation cancelled or expired documents” and for “attempting to gain money by fraud and non-compliance with his legal duties”.

He added that a “secret investigation” had been launched into the bids made for the tender, with the north’s tender commission having 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).

He said Tosunoglu had obtained a letter from the north’s tax office on January 15 stating that he had no tax debts and was thus able to participate in the tender process.

However, he said, Tosunoglu in fact owes around 13m TL (around €350,000).

He said that after Tosunoglu’s arrest, police had searched his house and found an invoice he had submitted to the tender commission for the new central bank building’s tender, and that that invoice had been seized as evidence.

Additionally, he said, police had then conducted a search of Tosunoglu’s accounting office and found a tender participation declaration, which was also seized as evidence.

He added that exactly 2,258 invoices were found during a police search of the office of Tosunoglu Insaat, the construction company of which he is a director, and that these were “likely to be fake”.

He requested that Tosunoglu be remanded in custody for a further three days, and judge Nuray Necdet acquiesced.

Tosunoglu’s father, ‘MP’ Hasan Tosunoglu, was quick to defend his son, saying the Turkish Cypriot taxpayer “made a big profit thanks to this tender, which was conducted at a price well below what was anticipated”.

“Apparently, some people were disturbed by this situation,” he added.

He said his son’s lawyer has “emphasised in court that the allegations were unfounded”, before adding, “they will not be able to bring us down, we will emerge from this attack with honour”.

He then turned his attention to public opinion on the matter, and called on people not to assume his son is guilty of the crimes of which he stands accused.

“Some are recklessly involved in this issue for political and other purposes. I find it unnecessary to even remind them of the principle of the presumption of innocence,” he said.

He added that he will soon “talk about it with all clarity”, and that he and his son will share the details of the case with the public.

However, Tosunoglu was reportedly less reserved when invited to explain the situation on television later on Friday afternoon.

Journalist Ertugrul Senova said he had invited Tosunoglu onto his television show on Kanal Sim, but that after a short conversation about the subject at hand, Tosunoglu had lost his temper.

“He got a little bit angry, and then, unfortunately, he began to swear in a way that could not be taken lightly. He was swearing about me, about my family, and then he started swearing about my mother. He was making it rain swear words,” Senova said.

Earlier, Huseyin Tufekci, the director of Turkish Cypriot construction company the Tufekci Group who had been arrested on Wednesday in connection with the same incident, was released on bail.