Construction on Aykut’s developments in the north resumes

Construction works have reportedly resumed on some of the properties under development in the north by convicted usurper of Greek Cypriot property Simon Aykut, House refugee committee MPs said on Tuesday.

Committee chairman and Akel MP Nikos Kettiros said “great concern was expressed” both regarding the information and the government’s decision to allow Aykut to return to Israel to serve the rest of his sentence.

Kettiros said refugee organisations had requested for the decision not to be executed and for Aykut to remain in prison in Cyprus.

The meeting was held behind closed doors at the request of the Law Office, although Kettiros said he did not understand why.

“No secrets were spoken,” Kettiros said and expressed the opinion that maybe “they did not feel comfortable with the development of the case and did not wish to face the press”.

He added that although presidency representatives, including the undersecretary to the president, had been invited, they did not show up.

Those who did show up were the “people whose properties Aykut usurped”, however the authorities “were not in a position to verify this, despite the fact we invited them to do so”.

Kettiros explained that the committee wanted “measures to be taken over the coming period as it appears that works have resumed on some of the properties Aykut had begun building on”.

“There are about 40 such properties,” Kettiros pointed out, adding that there were about 180 witnesses in the indictment.

Disy MP Nikos Georgiou said the committee discussed the European arrest warrants issued by Cyprus against individuals involved in usurpation of Greek Cypriot properties in the north, adding that the cases of Simon Aykut and Behdad Jafari “sounded the alarm”.

The recent ruling by a French court acquitting Jafari is “particularly unsettling”, Georgiou said.

This ruling and Aykut’s transfer to Israel, “raise reasonable and relentless questions”, such as how one knew Aykut would not be released on arrival and would not return to the north to supervise construction works, Georgiou added.