North a safe haven for criminals

 March 17, 2024

Australian underworld boss Mark Douglas Buddle

‘North Cyprus can easily be a safe shelter for those wanted by Interpol or involved in illegal dealings’

At least 11 fugitives wanted by Interpol have been pinned down in the northern part of Cyprus in the last 20 months, as this unrecognised piece of land increasingly becomes a safe haven for criminals looking to evade the law.

The fugitives, including Australian underworld boss Mark Douglas Buddle, Russian drug lord Viktor Panyushin, Chinese criminal Yanxi Xia also known as Arman Kaya, and Italian mafioso Sebastiano Claudio Saia had purchased real estate after obtaining residence permits from the Turkish Cypriot administration and were leading lavish lives here. Some had also established businesses.

All the arrested fugitives were extradited to Turkey. The northern part of Cyprus, not recognised by any state other than Turkey, has no extradition treaties in force and all the Interpol-related arrest and extraditions can only be made through Turkey.

Lack of recognition means there is no oversight of international institutions and that international law and legal order do not apply. This, coupled with lack of adequate controls on who enters the country, on what the status of their visas or permits are once there, as well as on their activities has increasingly turned the north into a place where fugitives can easily hide.

Not surprisingly, Moldovan authorities believe that fugitive oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, one of the most influential Moldovan politicians until 2019, is hiding in the north. Plahoutniuc, who is sanctioned by the USA and the EU, is wanted for embezzlement of state funds, fraud and bribery.

The lack of international recognition “creates serious legal gaps in terms of crime and criminals”, explains Dr Yonca Ozdemir of International Relations. “Moreover, existing laws are inadequate, there are huge shortcomings in their implementation, and there is lack of supervision… Therefore, north Cyprus can easily be a safe shelter for those wanted by Interpol or involved in illegal dealings.”

According to the 2023 Global Organised Crime Index, in the northern part of Cyprus “there are a number of people wanted by Interpol” and “these foreign criminal actors collaborate closely with domestic criminals.” The index also shows that organised crime; human, sex and drug trafficking; money laundering; and gambling networks are largely operating there with impunity.

The widespread bribery mechanism also supports the system, according to Ozdemir.

A study on corruption in the northern part of Cyprus based on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) methodology published last year revealed that 40 per cent of the business executives interviewed resorted to bribery in the past year. Seventy-two per cent of the 350 interviewed said bribery and corruption was ‘very common’. Bribery was found to be most rampant among the ‘prime minister’ and ‘ministers.’

Security threat

The uncontrolled flow of individuals into the north has also proven to be a security threat. Shamil Kalaev, a member of the terrorist organisation Islamic State Isis was among the 11 people wanted by Interpol and apprehended in the north in the last 20 months.

Last year, three separate Iranian terror attacks against Israelis and Jews in the Republic of Cyprus were foiled. In all three cases, the arrested suspects had come into the Republic of Cyprus from the north. In December, Israeli Prime Minister’s Office made a statement with the Mossad intelligence agency and the National Security Council saying that Israel was “troubled” by Iranian use of the northern part of Cyprus “both for terrorism objectives and as an operational and transit area”.

Although there are no exact figures, authorities estimate that the number of Iranians living in the north have reached 15 thousand. Over 40 thousand Iranians entered the north through air and seaports in 2023 according to official statistics.

Chief Justice Narin Ferdi Şefik in her speech at the opening of the 2023-2024 judicial year underlined that there should be increased controls at entry into the country and called for “urgent measures”.

Other deportations

In addition to the fugitives wanted by Interpol, 21 other individuals including Iranian Arash Maheri were deported from the north in the last 20 months for reasons like ‘threatening public law and order’, ‘spreading enmity among people and against the state’ and ‘conspiracy’. Seventeen of them were Turkish nationals.

Separately, and during the same period, 29 Nigerians were deported from the northern part of Cyprus. Many of them were members of violent cults such as Bucaneers and Black Axe, which are considered among the most far-reaching and dangerous organised crime groups in the world. A BBC investigation on Black Axe in 2021 for example, unearthed evidence of infiltration of politics, sexual attacks and killings across the world. All 29 had entered the north with student visas to attend university.

The ease with which student visas are issued paired with inadequate legal framework and the general lack of controls have turned universities into a backdoor to enter the county. There currently are 23 universities here that host almost 110,000 students. Close to half of these students are from countries in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Middle East and the Far East. According to estimates at least 30 per cent of the enrolled students are “passive”, meaning they have entered the country on a student visa, but are not attending any classes.

According to the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report in 2023, once in the north, these people, who have come in with student visas, end up being forced into prostitution, drug trafficking or other illegal dealings.

https://cyprus-mail.com/2024/03/17/north-a-safe-haven-for-criminals/

Concern over increase in crime in the north

High numbers of foreign students being forced into crime part of the problem

By Esra Aygin

                Australian underworld boss Mark Buddle was arrested and deported last month

There has been a drastic increase in crimes in the northern part of Cyprus as well as the number of foreign criminals, according to head of the Nicosia High Criminal Court, judge Fadil Aksun.

The increase in the crime rate in just the Nicosia area alone was 38 per cent this year and is considered an accurate representation of the increase in the whole of the north. Most of the crimes are related to drugs, theft, sexual assault and grave harm, as well as some new forms of crime such as illegal gambling and betting, and the laundering of the money made through these activities.

Judge Aksun, who was speaking at the closing ceremony of the 2021-2022 judicial year of the Nicosia High Criminal Court earlier this week, drew special attention to the increase in the number of foreign criminals in the country. Currently, there are 722 inmates in the central prison. Two-hundred-and-eighty of these are foreigners from third countries and 250 are from Turkey.

One of the reasons is the fact that the northern part of Cyprus is not internationally recognised and therefore, has difficulty in exchanging information and documents with third countries, according to Aksun.

“This has turned our country into a centre of attraction for criminals,” said the judge. “This, unfortunately, is contributing to the increased crime rates in our country. When we look at the profile of the criminals, we see that there is a significant increase in the number of foreign criminals each passing year.”

In fact, Australian fugitive and underworld boss Mark Buddle, who is sometimes described as Australia’s most wanted man, was arrested in the north last month.

Buddle had fled Australia in 2016 after being named a person of interest in a murder investigation. Since he fled his country, the Sydney-born fugitive spent time in the Middle East before finally settling in the northern Cyprus, which does not have any extradition treaties with any country except Turkey.

Unaware of his past, Turkish Cypriot authorities even granted Buddle residency due to his “high income”.

Besides attracting criminals due to its unrecognised status, the north has also become a place where foreign students are increasingly being involved in or pushed into crimes, according to Aksun.

“The culprits of especially drug-related crimes are mostly university students from the third countries, and this saddens us,” said Aksun.

The judge drew attention to the fact that there are many foreigners, who come on student visas, register in universities, but then drop out to illegally stay on the island.

“We are observing that these people, who are in the country illegally, participate in the illegal labour force, drug trade, or money laundering activities to be able to earn a living,” the judge said.

Aksun called on the universities to be more careful when selecting students and authorities to be more diligent in their supervisions.

However, the US State Department’s Trafficking In Persons Report in 2022 explains that foreign students in the north are most of the time victims rather than culprits. The report explains that the foreign university students – mostly from African countries – come to the northern part of Cyprus usually on false promises of scholarships, free housing and employment. These students, who enter on student visas, “are vulnerable to both sex and labour trafficking”, the report says. “Traffickers force female students into sex trafficking in apartments and male students into forced labour or coerce students to commit crimes such as transporting or selling drugs.”

The problem arises from the higher education policy, which could be summarised as ‘opening as many universities as possible and attracting as many students as possible’. The higher education sector, which is one of the engines of the Turkish Cypriot economy, has grown in an uncontrolled fashion in the last decade as one university after another opened its doors to a flood of overseas students. There currently are more than 100,000 students in over 20 universities. The lucrativeness of the business, coupled with the ease with which student visas are issued, and lack of controls or supervision over whether individuals entering on a student visa are indeed going to school, boosted the foreign student numbers.

Director Mine Yucel of The Center for Migration, Identity and Rights Studies, highlights that student visas, in some cases are being used as a way to legitimise illegal dealings. A report titled “Problems faced by foreign students in Cyprus” by the Eastern Mediterranean University Academic Staff Union DAU-SEN published two years ago seconds Yucel’s findings.

“Among those Africans, who arrive in Cyprus on a student visa, are some, who are from the world of crime and who, after registering in a university for just one semester, engage in all kinds of illegal activities such as drug trafficking, prostitution and money laundering,” said the report.

“Many students have stated that some act as agents and force vulnerable students into prostitution, threaten and intimidate them and even apply physical violence. Economic hardships push students to drugs both as users and sellers.”

Rising crime rates in the north

A series of recent murders, robberies and other crimes in the northern part of Cyprus is creating fear among Turkish Cypriots and prompting demands for stricter security measures.

One justice official said this week that in the last year alone criminal court proceedings had risen by 50 per cent.

But stricter security measures in a place where the police are under the command of the Turkish army could turn into a double-edged sword, further curbing personal rights and freedoms, warned senior researcher Mete Hatay of the Prio Cyprus Centre.

In just the last two weeks, Turkish Cypriots witnessed two murders, two large-scale robberies in broad daylight, sexual harassment, numerous thefts, assaults and arsons.

The body of an 18-year-old boy was found on the shore in the Famagusta region a couple of days after he went missing. A 53-year-old teacher was found strangled to death with a belt in Trikomo. An exchange bureau in Ayios Dhometios was robbed by a masked assailant. In another masked robbery, assailants stole cash and cheques from a vehicle belonging to a market in Kyrenia after knocking the driver unconscious. A few days later, a group of women coming out of a film screening were sexually harassed and assaulted in the middle of Nicosia.

Shocked by such incidents, Turkish Cypriots have taken to social media expressing their fear and calling for stricter security measures.

Among them was a member of the Turkish Cypriot assembly, who posted a photo on her social media page with a baseball bat on the front seat of her car, saying: “Yes, I have taken my precaution… It’s winter and days are shorter, so I need to feel safe… If steps are not taken to reverse this trend, people will start implementing their own justice.” She had to delete the post after receiving heavy criticism from people who reminded her that it was in fact her duty to make the country safer.

“It is very scary,” chief justice Narin Ferdi Sefik told the daily Kibris Postasi in an interview early this week. “In the past we used to feel very safe in Cyprus… We never had such incidents. Unfortunately, we can’t say that we have a safe environment anymore.” Sefik stated that there has been a 50 per cent increase in the number of criminal proceedings compared with last year.

The media has played up the fact that most of the detained suspects of the recent incidents were Turkish citizens, including a special sergeant with the Turkish armed forces, who had entered the north on a tourist visa.

Newspapers carried headlines such as, “Not a tourist, a thief,” and “They come, they rob, they leave.”

Turkish citizens can enter the northern part of Cyprus using their ID cards instead of a passport on a 90-day visa. Turkish Cypriot authorities have long been criticised over lack of adequate controls at the entry points; the ease with which tourist visas are given; the failure to follow up on those who come as tourists and overstay; or on those who come as workers or students, quit or drop out and end up staying in the country illegally.

The Turkish Cypriot Secondary School Teachers Union KTOEOS made a statement during the week criticising the failure to have adequate checks on who enters the county.

“Crimes like murders of women, child brides, abuses and rapes, which we aren’t used to, are increasing each day. Enough with the flow of population to our small island,” their statement said.

In an interview to daily Yeniduzen, Aysegul Baybars, responsible for interior affairs, explained that they are working on implementing stricter controls at the entry points, a system to register university students and follow up on workers, and short-term tourist visas.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Cypriot assembly on Monday approved a protocol on urban security, which stipulates the installation of surveillance cameras in public places. Tufan Erhurman, the head of the Turkish Cypriot ruling coalition, stated that police numbers need to be boosted while organisational changes need to be made so that the police can deal with the crime rates.

While acknowledging that the rapid demographic change and uncontrolled labour and education sectors are indeed problems that need to be tackled, Prio Cyprus Centre’s senior researcher Hatay warned against moves to increase surveillance and render police more powerful.

“Such moves may pose a risk on individual rights and freedoms and confidentiality of personal life,” said Hatay, adding that Turkey has been pressuring the Turkish Cypriot authorities for some years now to increase surveillance and give more authority to police.

In fact, Turkish ambassador, Derya Kanbay, during a press conference back in August had complained that Turkish Cypriot police can’t legally tap phones and said they had asked for certain legal amendments to make it easier to pursue criminals.

An added concern is that police are under the command of the head of the Turkish Cypriot security forces, which report to the commander of the resident Turkish forces, who in turn reports directly to the chief of staff in Ankara.

“TRNC, where 40 thousand troops are kept for external threats, will now turn into an absolute surveillance community, with cameras and security measures everywhere,” said Hatay.

“These are the demands of Turkey, which itself, has turned into an absolute police state. In view of Turkey, everyone is a terrorist, a traitor, a threat. I am afraid they will reflect this view on north Cyprus now.”

https://cyprus-mail.com/2018/10/14/rising-crime-rates-in-the-north/?fbclid=IwAR2hwEzg7-Eh2S-R534PNO5Q66BiySproASqfRDjMnkc4zcHy92Mazvi5cQ