Cenk Tosunoglu, the son of Turkish Cypriot independent ‘MP’ Hasan Tosunoglu, was on Friday remanded in custody for three days, having been arrested by the Republic of Cyprus’ police on Thursday, standing accused of crimes related to the possession and circulation of child sexual abuse material.

He had been arrested at the Ayios Dhometios crossing point in Nicosia while attempting to cross from the north into the Republic.

Court proceedings on Friday were held behind closed doors, with the Cyprus News Agency reporting that the court had been told that the information leading to Tosunglu’s arrest had been gathered from an investigation carried out by the police cybercrime unit of the German state of Bavaria.

He will next appear in court on Monday.

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His father Hasan Tosunoglu late on Thursday night described the accusations levelled against his son as “horrific disinformation”, claiming that it would be impossible for the European Union’s agency for law enforcement (Europol) to have put out an arrest warrant for his son to be arrested at the crossing point.

This, he said, is cause “everyone knows that Europol is an organisation which works with the TRNC police”.

“Why would Europol, which has been working with the TRNC’s police for so long, now wait for a TRNC citizen to cross to the south to be apprehended?”, he asked.

He went on to decry “prejudiced individuals among us who baselessly accuse an innocent young man” and who “have no shred of conscience”.

“Shame on them all. My son has no connection to this heinous crime, which they are trying to link to a dark and deep-seated operation. Any examination of his computer would easily reveal his innocence, but the Greek Cypriot police, without any basis, are attempting to advance a path they cannot pursue through legal means, through character assassination,” he said.

He added that his son’s innocence “will be understood sooner or later”.

“I ask those who do not know us well to not be deceived by manipulations and opportunists and not to stray beyond the humane boundaries of the presumption of innocence,” he said.

He went on to say that he will “fight against the prejudiced and political stance of Greek Cypriot justice in every way”, and added that this fight may lead him to the European Court of Human Rights.

“I will say it once again; this heinous move by the Greek Cypriot side is political and based on lies. Cenk is innocent. Those who fall for this trick and speak ill of him will be ashamed of their actions when the day comes,” he said.

It was Hasan Tosunoglu who had initially announced his son’s arrest on Thursday evening, accusing 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.

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 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, he 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.