Former Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides told the Nicosia criminal court on Friday that a total of 27 naturalisations were approved as exceptions during his term in office, under the controversial ‘golden passports’ programme.

On trial are former House president Demetris Syllouris and former Akel MP Christakis Giovani, who are accused of influence peddling and conspiracy to defraud in connection with the naturalisation of foreign investors.

Petrides appeared as a witness for the prosecution, prompting objections from the defence, which argued it would have adopted a different strategy had it known in advance that the former minister would testify. The court, however, ruled there was no reason to exclude his testimony, noting that Petrides had been listed as a prosecution witness from the outset of the trial.

Petrides told the court that, by law, it was at the cabinet’s discretion to make exceptions in some cases.

These derogations, he said, had to do with large investments that were considered of particular importance for the economy – such as the Larnaca marina, the Nicosia Mall, a casino and a high-tech company – as well as humanitarian reasons.

Petrides said the cabinet approved 27 such exceptions during his tenure from May 2017 till December 2019, adding that 18 of them were linked to a casino resort investment.

During cross-examination by Syllouris’ lawyer, Chris Triantafyllides, Petrides confirmed that these derogations were discussed at cabinet level.

He added that the European Union recognises that member states may allow exceptions for major investments that serve the public and economic interest.

Nine of the exceptional naturalisations during his tenure, he said, were granted on humanitarian grounds.

He told the court that he had identified issues with the investment programme and thus had proceeded to revise the procedures.

One issue, he said, was that the interior ministry was responsible for assessing the financial criteria of applicants, despite lacking the resources and expertise to do so. That responsibility was therefore transferred to the finance ministry.

He further stated that 95 per cent of naturalisation applications submitted for exceptional approval were rejected during his time in office.

Finally, Petrides emphasised that any application found to contain false or misleading information would not have been forwarded to the cabinet for consideration.

The trial will resume on July 30 at 9.30am.