Prosecution urges guilty verdict in ‘golden passports’ corruption trial

The prosecution in the ‘golden passports’ trial called on the court on Monday to deliver a guilty verdict on the two defendants facing charges of corruption and defrauding the state.

Nicosia criminal court began hearing closing arguments from the prosecution and the defence as the trial winds down.

The two defendants are former House president Demetris Syllouris and ex-MP and
businessman Christakis Giovani. They face charges of influence peddling and
conspiracy to defraud, relating to the naturalisation of foreign investors.

The attorney for Giovani will wrap up his closing arguments on Tuesday.

Lead prosecutor Charis Karaolidou said the two defendants had “abused” their
respective positions as state officials to facilitate the issuance of Cypriot
passports to foreign investors.

“We urge the court to come to the only reasonable conclusion: a conviction,” she
said.

The prosecutor was referring to the naturalisation cases of Nikolay Gornovskiy and Zaineh Ali Himli Armoush.

Gornovskiy is the former CEO of Russian multinational energy corporation Gazprom. The court earlier heard that the requirement to physically come to Cyprus and provide the biometric data was waived; and Gornovskiy got the Cypriot passport after making an investment in real estate here.

Armoush is the daughter of Jordanian businessman Almi Hilmi Munib Armoush; she and her father were naturalised under the citizenship-via-investment scheme.

Both applications were facilitated by the Giovani Group, real estate developers.
Defendant Giovani was the founder and CEO of the group for many years.

According to the state prosecutors, Giovani had “recruited” Syllouris in the effort to
secure Cypriot passports for the foreign nationals in question.

The two defendants had therefore also “conspired” to defraud the state.

Karaolidou said Giovani and Syllouris had been friends for many years, as well as business associates. Syllouris’ daughter was employed at the Giovani Group.

Regarding Syllouris’ role, the lead prosecutor said he had “intervened” with the
permanent secretary of the interior ministry. Syllouris had also sent a fax to
the finance ministry urging a reconsideration of the naturalisation application.

In addition, Syllouris attended investor forums abroad, taking advantage of his
“top-level access” in his role as House president at the time.

In his own closing arguments, attorney Chris Triantafyllides – representing
Syllouris – dismissed the prosecution’s case as “highly competent yet
theoretical.”

He likened the prosecution’s case to “a fiction novel” – inventive but lacking in
hard evidence pointing to guilt.

“If attendance of state officials [meaning Syllouris] at social functions is deemed
as evidence of corruption, then we are headed down a dangerous path in terms of
human relations,” the lawyer said.

As for Syllouris placing calls with the interior ministry about the naturalisation
applications, this was simply Syllouris asking for updates, rather than influence peddling.

For his part, the defence attorney for Giovani denied that his client had
“enlisted” Syllouris. There was also “not a shred of evidence” that they had
colluded in these cases.

The indictments against the defendants were filed in July 2022; the defendants
first appeared in court in September of that year.

Initially, four people were in the dock. In addition to Syllouris and Giovani, authorities had also charged lawyer Andreas Pittadjis and Antonis Antoniou, executive director of the Giovani Group. The charges against Pittadjis and Antoniou were subsequently dropped.

Hearings in the courtroom began in late 2024. The trial proper got underway in January 2025.

In October 2020 the Al Jazeera news network had aired an almost hour-long expose of the affair, prompting Syllouris and Giovani to both resign.

In the documentary, undercover reporters posed as proxies for a fictitious Chinese
businessman with a criminal record, aiming to secure him Cypriot citizenship.

Syllouris, Giovani and others were shown offering to help the man in his quest for
citizenship despite his (supposed) criminal record.