Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel’s undersecretary Huseyin Cahitoglu faced a fresh allegation of bribery on Friday after it was alleged in court that he had demanded a bribe of €100,000 for “transactions to be carried out” within one of the north’s public institutions.
That allegation comes on top of others levelled against him at his previous court hearing last week, when police officer Ethen Hoca had said that he Turkish Cypriot police believe Cahitoglu “unlawfully received €220,000 and £35,000 [€40,087]” for “transactions to be carried out in government offices in Nicosia between 2022 and 2024”.
Additionally, Hoca said last week, Cahitoglu had offered a bribe of £200,000 (€229,071) to a civil servant “in exchange for signing a document to illegally lease land to a third party”, while he had also allegedly requested a £200,000 bribe from another person to “carry out illegal transactions”.
Hoca also told the court last week that a search of Cahitoglu’s house had turned up two nine-millimetre magazines and 50 rounds of ammunition in his bedroom.
On Friday, he was remanded in custody for a further five days, and will as such next appear in court next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, another close ally of Ustel, his longtime close associate Fatma Unal, was also due to appear in court in Morphou on Friday after she had been arrested last week in connection with the “fake diploma scandal”.
She faces 12 charges, including that she obtained a fake degree herself from the now infamous Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTU) in Morphou.
However, she was admitted to the Akcicek hospital in Kyrenia complaining of dizziness and nausea, and as such, Friday’s court hearing was postponed until next Thursday. She remains on bail.
Unal has enjoyed a years-long close personal relationship with Ustel which saw her rise to the chairwomanship of the UBP Kyrenia district women’s branch, though she was removed from that post by the party last month.
