“The Cyprus Papers” | Al Jazeera “blows up” Cyprus Republic with videotaped discussions

Defence Redefined

12/10/2020

Al Jazeera exposed today popular politicians, lawyers and land developers who allegedly had meetings with representatives of “investors” with a criminal past, but nevertheless wanted to obtain the Cyprus Passport through the Cyprus Investment Program.

In the video, Al Jazeera associates, pretending to be an investor’s representatives, seem to reveal the “gang” which, taking advantage of the gaps that the Cypriot investment program had, offers passports to people with a criminal past. All these, of course, with the involvement of specific officials of the Republic of Cyprus, who are named.

The video follows Al Jazeera’s previous revelation about the pile of documents found in its possession that, according to their view, revealed the scheme of “golden passports” to people with a criminal past. 

According to Al Jazeera, the people who were videotaped were informed after the departure of Al Jazeera associates and made various allegations which are mentioned in the video.

The Giovanni group issued an announcement earlier today before the publication of the complete video, stating that this journalistic network is trying to trap the group. Specifically in its announcement, the group speaks of directed propaganda.

Earlier today the speaker of the parliament, Dimitris Syllouris, in a press conference he gave after the Al Jazeera trailer (and before the publication of the entire video), stated that:

“Al Jazeera, I am sure they know that their specific agent has been reported to the Cypriot authorities. A broadcasting network that considers that it has proved that in Cyprus everything was done and is being done wrong and knows that this one (case), referred to the Cypriot authorities, I believe that this should be news for the network. That there was an exception! So Al Jazeera does not practise investigative journalism, it does other things that are easy to understand.”

The timing of the revelation, however, but also the way the data is collected (hidden video recordings) and their wider exploitation is something that is problematic and will be of great concern in the future.

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