Category Archives: Cyprus

British man in Cyprus faces murder trial after refusal of plea bargain

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David Hunter not able to admit lesser charge of manslaughter over death of his terminally ill wife, Janice

An elderly Briton accused of murdering his terminally ill wife in Cyprus has been denied the chance to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, almost a year to the day after Janice Hunter died.

The state prosecutor Andreas Hadjikyrou said he could not accept a deal that would have allowed David Hunter, aged 76, to make the guilty plea, which had raised hopes of the retiree being released by Christmas.

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British pensioner who killed terminally ill wife to appear in Cyprus court

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David Hunter, who has admitted smothering wife, Janice, ‘desperate’ for case to be heard, says lawyer

A British pensioner charged in Cyprus with the premeditated murder of his terminally ill wife says he is “desperate” to have his day in court ahead of the trial opening on the island.

David Hunter is due to appear before an assize court in the coastal city of Paphos on Monday, almost nine months to the day after he admitted smothering his 75-year-old spouse, Janice, to death.

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found here

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Briton jailed for a year in Cyprus over hit-and-run death of Swedish woman

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Tourist found guilty of causing death through reckless act while on drugs, and of fleeing the scene

A British tourist has been jailed for a year after a Cypriot court convicted him over the hit-and-run death of a Swedish mother in a holiday resort on the island.

The Famagusta district court also revoked the 25-year-old’s driving licence for 18 months on Friday, but authorities did not release his name.

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Cyprus unity in fight against wildfires hailed as ‘very positive’

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With relations between island’s two communities at a low, assistance from Greek Cypriots has been welcomed

There is not much that can bring Greek and Turkish Cypriots together these days. But when wildfires raged across the Mediterranean island last week, they put differences aside to jointly combat the blazes. So rare was the sight that on Monday the war-split country’s permanent UN representative praised the “very positive” show of unity.

“It illustrates a fundamental point about this island, and that is the solidarity among Cypriots,” Colin Stewart said on Monday after meeting the Greek Cypriot leader, Nicos Anastasiades, whose forestry department had rushed to help extinguish the blaze.

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Tortured to death: the 14 Cypriot men killed by British in 50s uprising

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Book reveals fate of EOKA guerrilla fighters at the hands of the army during the dying days of empire on the Mediterranean island

At least 14 Cypriots were tortured then murdered by UK forces during an armed uprising in the late 1950s, according to newly unearthed evidence that raises fresh questions over another shocking chapter of Britain’s colonial history.

Testimony from British veterans and Cypriot rebel fighters, along with postmortem and morgue records, as well as previously undisclosed material from Cypriot archives, suggest that the victims died after being interrogated by UK officers. The dead, all men aged between 17 and 37, were arrested on suspicion of being part of the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters, a paramilitary organisation known as EOKA, which orchestrated a guerrilla campaign to overthrow British control in Cyprus.

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Cypriot police urged to reinvestigate gang rape of British woman

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Student found to not have had a fair trial two years after being wrongly convicted for making up allegation

Authorities in Cyprus are being urged to launch a fresh inquiry into a gang rape complaint by a British woman after the country’s supreme court acquitted her of fabricating the claim that she had been sexually assaulted at a holiday resort.

The 21-year-old’s legal team said it was incumbent on the island’s police force to reopen the investigation in the wake of the landmark ruling. “It’s our next big battle,” said the human rights lawyer Nicoletta Charalambidou.

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UK woman accused of making up Cyprus gang-rape claims has conviction quashed

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Cypriot supreme court throws out case, acknowledging 21-year-old was not given fair trial two years ago

A British woman accused of fabricating claims of being gang-raped in a holiday resort on Cyprus has had the conviction overturned by the Mediterranean island’s supreme court.

Two years after the then teenager received a suspended four-month sentence for fomenting public mischief, the tribunal threw out the case, acknowledging she had not been given a fair trial.

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Rising anger with Turkey drives calls for reunification in crisis-hit northern Cyprus

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With the economy in freefall and allegations of political interference, people have taken to the streets to advocate for federal future

In his sun-filled office in north Nicosia, Şener Elcil is plotting his next protest. Anger, he says, is in the air in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.

The economy is in freefall, thanks to the self-declared republic’s financial and political dependence on Turkey. Thousands have taken to the streets, spurred by inflation rates that have left many struggling to make ends meet; ahead of parliamentary polls later this month, calls for a boycott are mounting, while a blacklist of Turkish Cypriot dissidents, reportedly drawn up at the behest of Ankara, has spawned consternation and fear.

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Israel accuses Iran of attack attempt against Israelis in Cyprus

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Nicosia says an armed individual was arrested after crossing from Turkish-controlled north

Israel has accused Iran of orchestrating an attempted attack against Israelis in Cyprus after police on the Mediterranean island said an armed individual had been arrested.

“This was a terrorist incident directed by Iran against Israeli businesspeople living in Cyprus,” Matan Sidi, spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, said in a statement.

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‘Climate crisis on our shores’: Mediterranean countries sign deal after summer of fires

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Region’s leaders make joint declaration vowing to step up efforts to address extreme weather

With the catastrophic effects of this summer’s unprecedented wildfires still being counted, leaders from around the Mediterranean – the European region most at risk from climate breakdown – have vowed to intensify their efforts to tackle the challenges posed by extreme weather.

A joint declaration, signed in Athens, has fired the starting shot on what is hoped will bring groundbreaking change in how the neighbouring states shore up their defences against natural disasters.

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Cyprus prepares for Mediterranean oil spill from Syrian power plant

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Officials in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus say 20,000 tonnes of oil is approaching its coastline

Turkish Cypriot authorities have taken emergency action to stop an oil slick blamed on a faulty power plant in Syria from wreaking environmental havoc along some of the island’s finest unspoilt coastline.

Officials in the war-partitioned country’s breakaway north erected what local media described as a 400 metre barrier off the Karpas peninsula to prevent the slick reaching its pristine shores.

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Cyprus: row erupts as passports of Turkish Cypriot officials rescinded

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Head of Turkish-controlled north, Ersin Tatar, calls move by Greek Cypriot government ‘racist’ and ‘anachronistic’

A war of words has erupted on Cyprus as the divided island’s two ethnic communities exchange barbs over the decision by the Greek Cypriot government to rescind the passports of senior Turkish Cypriot officials.

Ersin Tatar, who heads the Turkish-controlled north and is among those affected, described the policy as “an assault” on attempts to find a solution to the country’s partition. Previously he had called the move “racist” and “anachronistic”.

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Turkish Cypriot leader: ‘The only way forward is a two-state solution’

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Self-avowed nationalist Ersin Tatar in ebullient mood despite embargos, isolation and political restrictions

It’s been nine months since Ersin Tatar assumed the presidency of the self-declared Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus and, like his predecessors, he has found little has changed.

Embargos, international isolation and political restrictions remain perennial problems for his unrecognised state. Even today, nearly 38 years after the territory proclaimed independence, foreign dignitaries pass through his colonial-era office and still object to being photographed next to the flags on his desk.

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Unease in the air as Cyprus ‘ghost town’ rises from the ruins of war

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Varosha, once a chic resort, is being rebuilt in the latest move of Turkey’s power play in the eastern Mediterranean

“Do you want to ride or walk?” asks Seyki Mindik. The municipal employee points under the fierce July sun towards the multicoloured bicycles stacked within view of the police barrier at the entrance to Varosha. “There is so much to see. Tourists love it here.”

Not so long ago the very notion of the eastern Mediterranean’s most famous ghost town being resurrected as a 21st-century theme park would have been unthinkable. For more than four decades there has been almost no movement among ruins of war left to rot with the passage of time.

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No man’s land: three people seeking asylum stuck in Cyprus’s buffer zone

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The Cameroonians, who had ‘no idea’ they had jumped into the demilitarised area, have been trapped for almost two months

A few months after Grace Ngo flew into Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus from her native Cameroon, she decided to head “for the west”. Smugglers pointed the student in the direction of the Venetian walls that cut through the heart of Nicosia, Europe’s last divided capital.

A little before midnight on 24 May, Ngo leapt from the breakaway Turkish Cypriot republic into what she hoped would be the war-divided island’s internationally recognised Greek south.

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‘Pure hell’: Cyprus hit by worst forest fire in decades

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Deadly blaze that killed four people and forced evacuation of 10 villages is now close to being under control

Authorities in Cyprus have said a deadly forest fire that was the worst to hit the island in decades was close to being brought under control after water bombing by Greek and Israeli aircraft.

Fanned by strong winds, the fire broke out on Saturday afternoon and swept through the southern foothills of the Troodos mountain range as the country grappled with a blistering heatwave.

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Cyprus could block EU adoption of minimum corporate tax plan

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EU directive on Joe Biden’s proposal for 15% tax rate on multinationals would require unanimous support

Cyprus could veto the EU’s adoption of Joe Biden’s proposal of a global minimum corporate tax rate, the country’s finance minister has suggested.

A White House proposal of a 15% tax rate for multinationals applied to profits in all jurisdictions is expected to be endorsed in principle by finance ministers of the world’s seven largest economies, the G7, at an upcoming meeting in Cornwall.

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Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders to hold talks on resuming peace process

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UN-led meeting in Geneva aims to re-energise efforts to end dispute four years after talks collapsed

Leaders from either side of Cyprus’s ethnic divide have flown to Geneva for a UN-led summit aimed at exploring whether the time is ripe to resume the peace process four years after the collapse of talks to reunify the island.

The foreign ministers of Greece, Turkey and Britain – Cyprus’s three guarantor powers – will join Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot teams in the hope of re-energising efforts to end the west’s longest-running dispute.

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EU’s southern states step up calls for ‘solidarity’ in managing mass migration

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Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Malta say burden has to be shared more justly with other EU partners

Europe’s southern states have stepped up calls for solidarity in managing mass migration to the bloc saying the burden has to be shared more justly with other EU partners.

Highlighting the deep divisions over the issue, politicians from countries along Europe’s Mediterranean rim said a proposed migration pact fell far short of resolving the crisis equitably.

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Cyprus will allow vaccinated British tourists from 1 May

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Visitors would need vaccine approved by EMA administered at least seven days before travel

Cyprus will allow British tourists who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 into the country without restrictions from 1 May, a tourism minister has said.

British visitors are the largest market for the country’s tourism industry, which has suffered during the coronavirus pandemic. Arrivals and earnings from the sector, which represents about 13% of the Cypriot economy, plunged on average 85% in 2020.

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