The trial of former transport minister Marios Demetriades and nine other defendants in the golden passport case that was due to begin on Monday did not go ahead after prosecutors added 25 new charges to the indictment.

The Nicosia permanent criminal court set September 23 as the date for defence lawyer Elias Stefanou to respond to the new charges. The trial itself has been pushed back to October 19.

The new charges apply to five of the ten defendants. Senior counsel Haris Karaolidou told the court the charges were sent to defence lawyers the day before and formally filed with the court on Monday.

She said they relate to the same events already covered by the existing charges and are based on evidence prosecutors had already gathered. She argued that because the case is still at an early stage, adding the charges now would not unfairly disadvantage the defendants.

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Demetriades’ lawyer Petros Stavrou did not object, since none of the new charges apply to his client.

Stefanou pointed out that the investigation began back in 2021 and the original indictment was filed in September 2024, questioning why prosecutors were only adding these charges now, two years later.

He said most of the new charges build on existing allegations that his clients obtained citizenship registrations through false representation.

But he argued the changes still alter the overall shape of the case. Three new charges are separate allegations of money laundering tied to transactions involving three investors, which Stefanou described as “of a completely different nature” to the rest of the case.

The court also agreed to a prosecution request to call three additional witnesses.

In total, ten defendants, eight individuals and two companies, are accused in the case.

The charges include influence peddling, bribery, extortion, conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.

An interim investigation in 2021 found that 137 naturalisations promoted by a law firm linked to Demetriades had been approved at cabinet meetings he attended while serving as transport minister between 2014 and 2018.

Demetriades has maintained his innocence throughout, describing himself as a “scapegoat”.