Five years after the findings of the inquiry led by Myron Nicolatos triggered a wave of citizenship revocations linked to Cyprus’ disgraced “golden passport” scheme, authorities are now facing growing scrutiny over how those passports were later stripped away.
A ruling delivered yesterday by Cyprus’ Administrative Court of Cyprus found in favour of businessman Anubhav Aggarwal, overturning administrative decisions that revoked his Cypriot citizenship. The judgment effectively means Aggarwal is once again recognised as a Cypriot citizen.
The businessman, represented by lawyer Simos Angelides of Andreas S. Angelides LLC, challenged the government’s decision to strip him of his nationality – and won.
The case raises uncomfortable questions for the Cypriot state. It suggests that not only were foreign investors granted citizenship under questionable circumstances before the scheme was “irrevocably terminated” in 2020, but that some revocations may also have been carried out improperly.
The citizenship of members of Aggarwal’s family had also been revoked as part of the same case.
Court finds lack of proper investigation
In her ruling, Judge Ariadni Zervou said the applicant had legitimate grounds to complain about a lack of proper investigation, insufficient reasoning, factual errors and breaches of the principle of proportionality.
She found that the original inquiry had never explicitly recommended that Aggarwal be stripped of his citizenship. Instead, it suggested only that authorities examine whether revocation should be considered.
Despite this, the Council of Ministers moved ahead with the decision without carrying out further investigation, later reaffirming its position based largely on the opinion of an independent review committee.
The judge also concluded that Aggarwal’s right to present his case had been granted only in a formal sense, rather than in any meaningful way.
Statelessness concerns ignored
A major issue highlighted by the court was the failure of authorities to consider whether revoking Aggarwal’s Cypriot citizenship would leave him stateless.
According to evidence presented in court, Aggarwal automatically lost his Indian nationality after obtaining Cypriot citizenship, in line with Indian law.
Judge Zervou said this issue was clearly raised by his legal team in a detailed letter sent in December 2021, which referenced international treaties, EU legal principles and case law. Yet authorities failed to properly assess the consequences before making their decision.
The court also questioned claims that Aggarwal had concealed involvement in criminal proceedings in India.
While authorities argued he failed to disclose his alleged involvement in a criminal case, the court found there appeared to be no active criminal proceedings against him at the time he applied for Cypriot citizenship – a crucial point that was never properly investigated.
Fallout from Cyprus’ passport scandal continues
The case stems from findings in the inquiry into Cyprus’ controversial investor naturalisation scheme, which concluded that Aggarwal failed to disclose his links to ARK Imports Private Limited and an investigation by Indian authorities connected to the NSEL trading scandal.
The report alleged he submitted false or misleading information about his business activities.
However, this latest ruling underlines the legal complexities now facing Cyprus as it attempts to undo years of controversial passport approvals.
What began as a scandal over handing out passports too freely may now be evolving into a second controversy — whether the government acted unlawfully in trying to take them back.
