Photo by
Amos Ben Gershom/ GPO on 4 September, 2023
Cyprus Police Probe Threat Against President, Israeli Suspect at Center of Investigation
Jerusalem, 3 February, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- Cyprus police are investigating a threatening message sent to President Nicos Christodoulides, with their probe focusing on an Israeli national held in Nicosia’s Central Prison, police spokesperson Kyriaki Lambrianidou told reporters on Monday.
The investigation follows a threat made against the president via social media, which lead to a large-scale search of the prison. Officers confiscated a television and a notebook from the cell of Turkish-born Israeli Shimon Mistriel Aykut, who is accused of large-scale appropriation of Greek Cypriot property in the Turkish-occupied north. A mobile phone and charger were also found in a prison staff restroom.
Lambrianidou said the police are working with relevant state agencies but declined to provide further details. Aykut’s lawyer has submitted a complaint to prison authorities demanding an explanation for the search.
Aykut, a 74-year-old Israeli-Turkish property developer is accused of selling $44.1 million worth of properties belonging to Greek Cypriots in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus.
Aykut faces 242 charges including fraudulent transactions, illegal possession and use of land, and money laundering among other charges. All the properties in question are located in villages in the Famagusta and Kyrenia Districts of Northern Cyprus.
He was arrested in June while trying to enter the Republic of Cyprus, where he also develops property, from Northern Cyprus.
The issue of illegal exploitation by foreigners of Greek Cypriot property in Northern Cyprus is probably the only thorny matter in Cypriot-Israeli relations. Christodoulides raised the issue in 2023 with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with overnight stays by Israeli tourists in hotels in the north, most of which are illegally built on Greek Cypriot land or belonged to Greek Cypriots before 1974.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has instructed its nationals to comply with the directives issued by the government of Cyprus.
In 1974, the Turkish army overran Northern Cyprus. Almost all the Greek Cypriots there were driven off their lands or fled. The international community does not recognize the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
