By Michele Kambas

A court in Cyprus on Friday sentenced an Azeri man to 6-1/2 years in jail on charges of conspiracy, his lawyer said, after prosecutors earlier dropped charges he planned terrorist attacks against Israelis living on the island.

Cyprus’s Criminal Court imposed the sentence on Orkan Asadov, an Azeri, who has been in custody since late 2021. At the time of his arrest Israel accused Iran of recruiting Asadov as a “hit man” to target Israeli businesspeople on the island.

Iran had rejected those charges at the time as baseless. The charge sheet against the defendant has never mentioned an Iranian link.

The defendant was found guilty of conspiracy to commit a crime and weapons possession, his lawyer Kostis Efstathiou told Reuters, confirming a report which first appeared in the Phileleftheros newspaper.

During a lengthy trial held behind closed doors and after a plea bargain negotiations, prosecutors dropped terrorism-related charges against the defendant, as well as charges specifying Israelis were his alleged targets.

“We convinced the court that ethnicity had absolutely nothing to do with this case,” Efstathiou said. “It had nothing to do with terrorism.”

Friday’s sentencing takes into account time already served in detention. “Its a severe penalty, within the scope of the law,” the lawyer said.