The civilian case against two of the five Greek Cypriots arrested in the north in July continued on Monday, with two prosecution witnesses, both of whom took ownership of land in the Trikomo area after 1974, called to the stand.
The first witness was Sinan Kocareis, who said he owns two plots of land next to the Salamis hotel near Ayios Sergios, on which he has built tourist bungalows.
According to newspaper Ozgur Gazete’s editor-in-chief Pinar Barut, present in court, Kocareis said his family had been gifted the plots of land “as a reward for our mother’s property in the south.
“Our property in the south was very valuable. It was by the sea,” he said, according to Barut, before going on to explain the property his family had owned before 1974 had been in Larnaca.
Kocareis told the court that he and his family “did not give anyone or any lawyer power of attorney to conduct an investigation regarding our property”, before going on to add that he does not know the defendants or the Turkish Cypriot estate agent who was also arrested in connection with the case.
“I gave a statement to the police in July after they called me. The police called me and said, ‘someone has some information about your property’,” he said, adding that his sister had filed a complaint “because the police told us that our personal data was in the hands of these people”.
He was then cross-examined by defence lawyer Oncel Polili, who asked him how he knows his family owned land in the Larnaca area before 1974.
“My father told us, and we went and saw it, in Larnaca, in the Turkish neighbourhood … It is very valuable, very beautiful land, right on the seafront,” Kocareis said.
“So, you went and saw it. No one filed a complaint about you, you visited your property, and you received the equivalent value in return. Similarly, these defendants came to their own properties, properties which belonged to them before 1974,” Polili said.
“So, you went to the south and saw that there was no problem. When they came, was there a problem, did they commit a crime?”
Kocareis said that while he and his family were in Larnaca, “we did not disturb anyone”, and that the two Greek Cypriot defendants “harass us” when they visit property in the north.
“Sometimes, people from the south go and knock on doors and so on. People are harassed,” he said.
Returning to the matter of the case regarding the two Greek Cypriots, Kocareis explained that he had been contacted by the police who told him he needed to file a complaint.
“The police told us that these people were harassing someone, that they were arrested for harassment. They said, ‘these people have information on you, so you should file a complaint’,” he said.
The second witness was Bulent Kemal Ersac, who testified in English, as, despite being of Cypriot heritage, he was born and raised abroad. He also took ownership of land in the Trikomo area after 1974.
He also told the court that the police had called him and told him that “someone had information” about his property, and as such invited him to the police station to file a formal complaint.
He said he “did not know how these people obtained this information”, but that he was “very scared” by the whole ordeal.
He explained he had bought the land with the intention of bequeathing it to his grandchildren, and said that when he was invited to the police station in Trikomo, he had been asked whether he crosses to the Republic, and he answered in the affirmative.
“They said, ‘now, you have to be very careful, because these people have your information and they can arrest you’. That is why I am thinking of going to London via Turkey. I do not plan on leaving via Larnaca. And I am still worried about these people,” he told the court.
He made reference to the “blue folder” containing information related to properties which was found with the Greek Cypriots, but that has since been rejected as evidence, and said the police had told him about it.
In response to this, the defence asserted that Ersac had been “intimidated” by the police.
“These people have not filed a complaint against anyone. They have had this information for years,” the two defence lawyers said.
At the end of day’s hearing, the court scheduled the next hearing for Thursday, with another hearing thereafter scheduled for November 12.
Meanwhile, all five Greek Cypriots arrested in July remain on trial at a military court in northern Nicosia, where one has been charged with illegally entering the north when the five crossed into the north via the Strovilia crossing point, near Famagusta, on July 19, while the other four stand accused of aiding and abetting the illegal entry.
The five Greek Cypriots deny the charges, with the verdict in that case expected on Friday.
