Feb 17 (Reuters) – A Cypriot court on Tuesday acquitted former parliament speaker Demetris Syllouris of corruption charges related to a canceled citizenship-by-investment program that sparked public outrage and intense EU scrutiny.
Siloulis was tried alongside former lawmaker Christakis Tziovannis, who was also acquitted on charges of conspiracy to defraud and abuse of power to secure passports for foreign investors. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
In a majority ruling, Nicosia’s three-judge criminal court said prosecutors had failed to prove intent or prove involvement in the fraud.
Siloulis, once the No. 2 person in the country’s top ranking, resigned as speaker in 2020 after an undercover video aired by Al Jazeera showed him and Tsiovanis discussing how to help a fictitious investor with a criminal record obtain a Cypriot passport. The footage is not part of the judicial process.
“I was and still am clean,” Silulis told reporters outside the courthouse. “Corruption and collusion led to wealth, and I had no wealth.”
Authorities later scrapped the program, which had seen more than 7,000 passports issued between 2007 and 2020 and was popular with Russian and Chinese investors.
A national investigation found that the approval process lacked adequate oversight while ignoring EU warnings about the scheme, fueling perceptions of entrenched corruption.
(Writing by Michel Campas; Editing by Andre Galip)
