On Thursday, Speaker of the Cypriot parliament, Demetris Syllouris, resigned in the wake his involvement in "golden passports" scheme scandal.
Syllouris' resignation comes after he was secretly filmed during his participation in a scheme, under which foreign criminals could purchase a EU passport through the country's citizenship-by-investment mechanism.
The Cypriot speaker insisted that he was innocent of any wrongdoing, but he decided to step down from his duties until investigations ran their course.
"My decisions were based on the firm belief that I have not done anything legally wrong and that my possible resignation would leave the impression to the contrary," Syllouris added.
The scandal erupted after news outlet the Qatari-based Al Jazeera’s investigative unit used hidden cameras to show Syllouris and others promising to a man posing as a representative for the Chinese investor to find ways of skirting Cyprus’s rules on buying citizenship.
The documentary was aired on October 12, triggering public outrage and forcing authorities to suspend a lucrative citizenship for investment program.
Under Cyprus’s “golden passport” program, a foreigner can get citizenship by investing at least 2.5 million euros ($2.93 million) in the country. Such programs, which exist in several small EU countries, have raised broad concern about money laundering and other crimes.
Hundreds of people protested in the capital Nicosia on Wednesday, against the alleged corruption in public life highlighted by the passports exposure.
Follow the latest news on Google News
