Cenk Tosunoglu, the son of Turkish Cypriot independent ‘MP’ Hasan Tosunoglu, was on Thursday arrested, standing accused of crimes related to the possession and circulation of child sexual abuse material, the police confirmed to the Cyprus Mail on Thursday.

The arrest was made at the Ayios Dhometios crossing point in Nicosia while Tosunoglu was attempting to cross from the north into the Republic, and had initially been announced by Hasan Tosunoglu, who accused the Republic of Cyprus of engaging in “some sort of attrition tactic”.

“They are clearly trying to sacrifice an innocent young man’s freedom for political gain that has nothing to do with him,” he said.

He added that his first thought was the resolution passed by the north’s ‘parliament’ earlier this month demanding a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem, to which he voted in favour.

“The lack of reliable information further compounds the record. I hope this grave mistake is rectified as soon as possible,” he said.

He is expected to appear in court on Friday morning.

Cenk Tosunoglu is not the first son of Hasan Tosunoglu to be arrested this year, with his brother Ugur Tosunoglu having been arrested by the Turkish Cypriot police in February on suspicion of document forgery in relation to the tender for the construction of the north’s new central bank building.

During a court hearing over the matter, police representative Ugur Yildiran said Ugur 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 Ugur 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, Ugur Tosunoglu in fact owes around 13m TL (around €350,000).

He said that after Ugur 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 Ugur 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”.

Hasan Tosunoglu was quick to defend his son on that occasion, too, 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.

However, Tosunoglu was reportedly less reserved when invited to explain the situation on television a few days later.

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.

After this incident, Hasan Tosunoglu attempted to resign as an ‘MP’, but his resignation was not accepted by his peers and he remains in post.

He sits as an independent, having resigned from ruling coalition party the DP in November last year.