The Council of Ministers on Wednesday announced its decision to revoke an additional nine passports initially issued under the defunct ‘Cyprus Citizenship by Investment’ scheme.
The decision affects three investors and six of their dependents.
This brings the total number of revoked passports to 222. Specifically, to date, 63 investors have been stripped of their Cypriot citizenship, along with 159 of their family members.
The ‘Cyprus Citizenship by Investment’ scheme was abolished in 2020 after an undercover investigation by Al Jazeera revealed rampant corruption and that the government approved issuing passports to international criminals and fugitives, drawing criticism from the European Union and sparking protests in the country.
Under the scheme, foreign nationals were able to acquire a Cypriot passport by investing more than 2 million euros in the country.
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