Lawsuit threatened over ‘attacks’ on defence witness in Greek Cypriots’ case

Lawsuits were threatened in the north over the weekend over an alleged “campaign aimed at discrediting” a man who stood as a defence witness in the case of the five Greek Cypriots who had been arrested on suspicion of espionage.

The suits were threatened after news website Giynik reported on Saturday that former Cyprus Turkish teachers’ trade union secretary-general Sener Elcil, who had been something of a protagonist at court proceedings on Thursday, Friday, and the early hours of Saturday morning, had sold property to Israeli developer Simon Aykut.

Aykut was arrested by the Republic of Cyprus’ authorities last year and remains in custody, standing accused of developing and selling €43 million worth of property on Greek Cypriot land in the north.

Giynik alleged that Elcil had sold Aykut around £1.4 million (€1.6m) worth of land near the Famagusta district village of Akanthou in 2021, and that the land in question had belonged to Greek Cypriots before 1974.

Elcil on Sunday issued a response, saying that he is one of seven members of his family who owned a share in the land, and that he had “inherited [it] from previous generations”.

He described the report in Giynik as an “unfounded campaign aimed at discrediting” him.

“These baseless attacks clearly show that those who thrive on blood, tears, and profit are disturbed by my solidarity … I believe that this administration, which is a subordinate administration of Turkey in the north of the island, wants to perpetuate its profiteering system by pitting property owners against each other for its own political and financial gain, and to leave the Cyprus problem unsolved,” he said.

He added that the report published by Giynik was “completely full of lies, insults, and slander”, and that he intended to “initiate the necessary legal process”.

Elcil had offered himself as a guarantor to facilitate the bail of one of the arrested Greek Cypriots in Trikomo on Thursday, as well as in the subsequent military court case in northern Nicosia on Friday and in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Two Greek Cypriots appeared in court in Trikomo on Thursday – a 68-year-old man and the 60-year-old woman. They stand accused of privacy violations, trespassing, and breaching the peace. 

Newspaper Yeni Duzen reported that Elcil and Teyfik Yoldas, a former leader of Dau-Bir-Sen, a trade union for staff at Famagusta’s Eastern Mediterranean University, had offered themselves as guarantors, were found not to be “reputable”.

As such, the pair were remanded in custody for three months and may now remain in custody until the end of October, pending the start of a trial.

Additionally, it was reported that one of the prosecution lawyers said across the courtroom to Elcil that “you were set up to be here”, and that Elcil replied, “this whole case is a set up!”

At the conclusion of the day’s proceedings, Elcil told the court that he would be willing to surrender his car as collateral to allow one of the two arrestees to be released on bail.

He said that while he knew neither suspect, he believed that they are “honest people”.

On Friday, he was in court once again, as all five arrested Greek Cypriots – the two who appeared in court in Trikomo as well as two men, aged 66 years old and 60 years old, and a woman aged 63 years old – stood accused of having entered the north illegally.

The Turkish Cypriot police had alleged that one of the five passed through the Strovilia crossing point near Famagusta without presenting their identity card, with the other four accused of aiding and abetting them.

Newspaper Ozgur Gazete’s editor-in-chief said after proceedings ended in the early hours of Saturday morning that Elcil had once again spoken up on the five’s behalf.

“I think they are innocent. They would not run away from justice. I do not know them, but I have close friends in the south who do,” he is quoted as saying. He also reportedly offered a guarantee of £25,000 (€28,692) for one of the five to be released on bail.

He was then asked how he could guarantee that the five will not simply escape back to the Republic and never return.

“There are 45,000 Turkish soldiers and 3,000 policemen here. It is not my job to man the border, the Turkish army can do that,” he said, according to Barut.

The five were all remanded for 13 days, though judge Dilsah Karayel did say that Elcil and the other Turkish Cypriots who offered themselves as guarantors were “unwavering” and had “spoken sincerely”.

She added that there was “no evidence” that they could have been set up or bribed into offering themselves as guarantors for the Greek Cypriots, and that they had “conveyed their sincere opinions” to the court.

However, she said, for the offer of a guarantee to be accepted by the court, there must be a “direct organic bond between a suspect and a guarantor”, and given that the Turkish Cypriots who had offered themselves as guarantors had admitted in court that they had no prior personal relationship with the suspects, there was no such bond between them.