All innocent in the first case of "golden passports"

All innocent in the first case of "golden passports" - The Criminal Court issued a unanimous decision, which numbered 252 pages

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The Permanent Criminal Court of Larnaca - Famagusta, which met today, Friday, November 4, acquitted and discharged the 9 persons, 5 natural and 4 legal, from the total of 36 charges they faced, in the case concerning the exceptional naturalization of foreign applicants, based on the conclusion of Kalogirou.

The Criminal Court issued a unanimous decision, which numbered 252 pages.

In a written statement, the Criminal Court states that "all the charges except for charges 33 and 34 which related to cover-up and category 36 which related to money laundering from illegal activities, had a common element in their details, that the name T.N. was fake and the name M.E. real. But the person who sought naturalization held a passport of the Commonwealth of Dominica in the name T.N."

It is also noted that "the failure to prove, in the judgment of the Court, that the passport of the Commonwealth of Dominica in the name of T.N. contained false information or that it was fake, had the consequence of not proving a constituent element of the accusations and consequently the acquittal of the accused. In particular, key criteria to qualify a document as a plato for the purposes of the offense of forgery is that it appears to be something it is not in fact in relation to the person who prepared it, its origin or history, which was not the case here. case".

Also, according to the decision of the Criminal Court "it was not conclusively proven that the defendants, or any of them, knew that T.N. was the M.E./MR at the time they were charged with the commission of the offences. While further regarding charge 25, which related to the forgery of an official document, the Court rejected the charge also for a further reason, namely that the application for naturalization is not one of the official documents.

Also "with regard to charges 31, 32, 33 and 34 for cover-up, the Court ruled that, on the one hand, because it was not specified in the details of the charges what the generative offense was, there was no offense and on the other hand, even if it was accepted that meant, according to the claim of specific Iranian persons, embezzlement or theft by T.N. the causative offense was not proven due to the absence of testimony, either for prosecution, or for the existence of an indictment for the commission of the said offenses and much more for the commission of the causative offense".

Also, the Criminal Court in its announcement states that "as regards category 36, for money laundering, due to the failure to prove the generative offenses of categories 4 - 30 which were a constituent element of the offense of category 36, it was dismissed. In addition, the performance of payment of money by T.N. to defendants 1, 2, 6 and 8, as a shareholder in various companies, as part of income from illegal activities, it is an error, since a shareholder in a limited liability company has no liability or obligation to pay debts, so here too, any proportional distribution cannot be made amount was paid, based on the percentage of shares held by T.N. in various companies".

It is noted that in the decision of the Criminal Court, which was partially read in the room, it was mentioned that "the Accusing Authority reduced the requested matter to a fact".

In detail regarding the charges, it is stated in the announcement that "specifically, the Court acquitted defendants 1 and 2, on three charges of conspiracy to commit extortion, 11 charges of forging a document, 11 charges of circulating a forged document, one charge of securing registration by false representations, four counts of providing false information about a customer, four counts of concealing property obtained illegally and one count of money laundering."

The Court also acquitted and discharged "defendant 3, on two counts of conspiracy to commit extortion, four counts of forging a document, four counts of circulating a forged document, one count of obtaining a registration by false representation and one count of providing false information about a customer."

Further, the Court acquitted and acquitted "defendant 4 on two counts of conspiracy to commit extortion, 10 counts of forgery of a document, one count of obtaining registration by false representation, four counts of providing false information about a client and four counts of concealing property obtained illegally ».

In its written notice the Court also states that defendant 5 was acquitted and acquitted of one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, one count of obtaining registration by false representation, one count of forgery of an official document and one count of circulating a forged document. Accused 6 was also acquitted and acquitted of two counts of conspiracy to commit extortion, six counts of forging a document, six counts of circulating a document, two counts of providing false information about a client, four counts of concealing property obtained illegally and one count of money laundering ».

The Court also acquitted and acquitted "defendant 7 on one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, nine counts of forging a document, 9 counts of circulating a false document, four counts of providing false information about a customer and two counts of concealing property obtained illegally." Defendant 8 was also acquitted and acquitted of one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, five counts of forging a document, five counts of circulating a forged document, two counts of providing false information about a customer and one count of money laundering."

Furthermore, the Court acquitted and acquitted "defendant 9 on one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, four counts of forging a document, four counts of circulating a forged document, three counts of providing false information about a client and one count of concealing property obtained illegally."

Notice of the acquitted company

Meanwhile, in a written statement, the acquitted company states that "today's unanimous decision of the Court puts an end to a prosecution that was unjustified and immoral from the beginning. This case was not about corruption or collusion, it was about a case of naturalization, which at an unsuspected time, in March 2019, we had reported to the authorities to intervene, but they did nothing."

It is added that "in retrospect there was a conscious effort to be used by the authorities to mitigate the unacceptable and scandalous things that took place in relation to the naturalization of foreigners. As always, we acted with complete transparency and in practice cooperated with the authorities."

The announcement also states that "our full vindication is the Cypriot justice's response to those who tried to question our honesty in order to serve other interests. We are a law firm and the only guiding principle of our actions is the defense of the rights of our clients and partners".

This, the company's announcement concludes, "we will continue to act, with zeal, integrity, independence, professionalism, dignity and commitment to legality, as we have been doing for 45 years".