Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 99-10-29

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Friday, October 29, 1999

Police has enough evidence for convictions in visa scam

INFORMATION about the visa scam investigations continued to find its way into the papers. The source was the Minister of Justice Nicos Koshis who had informed the ad hoc House Committee on criminality about the police probe.

Simerini

reported that, according to Koshis, police had incriminating evidence against two of the suspects that were being held in connection with the visa scam. Koshis reportedly told the committee that the evidence was enough to ensure the conviction of the suspects.

He added the visa scam was not so significant in terms of criminal offences. The problem was the level of corruption among policemen working at immigration and the crime prevention squad, who were being bribed by crime barons with women and money. It was very difficult for policemen to resist the temptation, which was why it was imperative for policemen not to work at these departments for longer than two years.

Machi

claimed that police had testimony from nine people who had allegedly bribed Immigration Department chief Christodoulos Nicolaides, through third persons. A cabaret owner has told the police that he had allegedly given expensive gifts to Nicolaides, in exchange for the granting of work permits to foreign artistes.

During searches of Nicolaides' family home as well as that of his daughter's, police confiscated several items, including a painting and gold worry beads, to use as evidence. Police are hoping that witnesses would identify these objects as gifts they had given Nicolaides.

Haravghi

continued its criticism of the government for giving permission to the Porsche distributor to hold a car exhibition on the Paphos airport runway, which is next to the Andreas Papandreou air base. It accused Minister of Defence Socratis Hasikos of doing everything in his power to satisfy the Porsche distributor, even though he knew there would three Turks among the company's guests.

The paper challenged Hasikos' assertion that none of the guests could see inside the air base. Why had the company applied for permission to use the runway to the Ministry of Defence? Why had the National Guard command opposed the government's decision? Why had security at the air base been stepped up during the event?

Politis

reported that government officials were examining invoices and documents of some 200 drug importing companies in an attempt to unearth all cases involving the over-pricing of drugs. Adequate evidence has been collected for several companies and passed to the police, the paper said.

According to the paper's sources, the monitoring of drug prices was non- existent, giving the opportunity to companies to over-price their products and profiteer at the expense of the public.

Phileleftheros

said that US efforts to secure the resumption of Cyprus talks were now focused on the Turkish generals. Defence Secretary William Cohen had revealed in a letter that the US had appealed to the Turkish military in an effort to have Turkey's conditions for talks lifted.

American contacts with the Turkish political and military leadership had been stepped up in view of President Clinton's visit to the area next month. Washington wants to create the conditions that would allow Clinton to announce positive developments in the Cyprus peace efforts.

Alithia

was the only paper that led with a report about the killings in the Armenian parliament. News of the murder of the prime minister, a government minister, the House speaker and five others, by four gunmen infuriated the international community, the paper said. The gunmen, who claimed they were carrying out a coup, did not belong to any known terrorist organisation.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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