Ex-minister in court over Cyprus’ golden passport scandal
Former Transport Minister Marios Demetriades and some of his relatives linked to the family law firm have been referred to the criminal court over the golden passport scandal.
A total of eight individuals and two legal entities face 59 charges including bribery, corruption, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud and violating the Council of Europe convention on criminalising corruption.
The defendants will appear before the criminal court on January 16 where they will be read out the charges.
Demetriades served as a transport minister under the previous government of former President Nicos Anastasiades.
Also facing charges are Andreas Demetriades, Demetris Demetriades, George Demetriades, Eleni Similidi, Jing Wang, Josef Friedrich Santin, Vasiliki Georgiou-Santin, the Andreas Demetriades & Co LLC firm as well as the company Delsk (Cyprus) Business Services Ltd.
All defendants were released on bail.
The former minister, as well as Andreas, Demetris and George Demetriades along with Friedrich Santin and Georgiou-Santin, had to sign off €100,000 in bail.
Similidi had to pay €60,000 in bail, and Wang had to pay €100,000 in cash.
The case was filed at the Nicosia District Court on September 27.