ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th October, 2020) Hundreds of protesters gathered on Wednesday in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia to demand parliament speaker Demetris Syllouris' resignation amid a corruption scandal, the Phileleftheros newspaper reported.
Syllouris and several prominent Cypriot officials have been implicated by the Al Jazeera broadcaster as participating in a plan to sell passports to foreign criminals. The Doha-based broadcaster on Monday published a one-hour long investigative report on YouTube, which alleged that Cypriot officials offered criminals the potential to purchase an EU passport through the country's citizenship by investment scheme.
According to the newspaper, more than a thousand people demanded Syllouris' resignation and called for an end to corruption.
On the same day, for the first time in the history of Cyprus, the country's lawmakers went on a strike, while the parliamentary Committee on Institutions refused to hold a planned meeting as a sign of protest over the fact that Syllouris had not yet resigned.
"We are not going to have a meeting unless the chair of the parliament resigns, who, judging by the Al Jazeera video, is involved in a serious corruption case," George Perdikes, the leader of the Cyprus Green Party, said in a video published on the Kathimerini newspaper's website.
On Tuesday, Syllouris apologized in a written statement, stating that he would only withdraw from his duties, beginning on Monday until the end of an investigation.
Later that day, Cypriot government spokesman Kyriakos Koushos said that the suspension of the investment program for acquiring Cypriot citizenship would take effect starting November 1. The decision was made due to the constant shortcomings of the program and the abuse of its provisions.
The Cypriot citizenship by investment scheme is believed to have raised up to 9.7 billion Euros for the country's economy since its introduction in 2013 as part of efforts to combat a severe financial crisis.
