Complacent attitude to Blair’s Oram's defence

Blair has not visited occupied northern Cyprus in connection with her defence of a British couple who have been ordered to tear down a built on house on property belonging to a Greek Cypriot refugee, British Minister for Europe Douglas Alexander has confirmed.

In his written response to Theresa Villiers MP, Alexander said nor was Blair the guest of the British Consul-General when recently visiting Istanbul in her professional capacity.

The Government warns British citizens, through its online travel advice and in response to enquiries, of the risks purchasers face when buying in northern Cyprus, said Alexander.

Cherie Blair’s decision to defend the Orams has already caused a diplomatic outcry from the Cyprus Press and Government. In April last year EU newcomer Cyprus warned it would use courts in other EU countries to enforce decisions against property investors who had bought property in northern Cyprus that Greek owners had been forced to abandon when Turkey invaded the island. This followed a European Court of Human Rights decision upholding the property rights of one such Greek owner against the Turkish Cypriot occupiers of her property.

It put the number of Greek Cypriots affected at over 200,000 and estimated that between them they hold valid titles to approximately 82 per cent of the privately owned land in the occupied areas. UK property investors have been prominent buyers of properties in northern Cyprus where prices have tended to be cheaper than in the south.

Villiers said that although it was a relief to hear Blair had not visited Turkish occupied Cyprus in relation to the case, she was still dismayed at the complacency of Alexander’s letter. The Government was trying to bring the two sides together in Cyprus, but the Foreign Office did not seem even to be worried about the controversy caused by Blair's involvement in case.

'In defending the Orams, she is flatly contradicting the advice of the Foreign Office by actively supporting those who have gone against this advice and “bought” land owned by refugees’, she said, vowing to campaign for the Government to strengthen its advice to those thinking of purchasing property in occupied northern Cyprus.

Eupro

Eupro has generated a lot of commentary in the Cypriot press recently ... specifically regarding its role in the Oram's case. Eupro is a Lobby group that has built a huge war chest to defend the rights of foreigners, mostly from Western Europe who are living in properties whose previous owners were forcibly expelled in the North of Cyprus. Eupro's website address is http://www.eupro.co.uk ... the site mostly consists of opinions that run counter to the truth. This association boasts about being in the front line of the Cypriot property dispute. Wonderful, it should also boast about being a mouthpiece for Turkish propaganda. A fact that is evident when one explores Eupro’s site ... why even its useful links section contains disinformation. The Cyprus Mail is listed in the links section but is only "Recommended for anyone interested in the brainwashed politics of Greek Cypriot Cyprus..."

Legal Fees

Mrs. Blair is back in the news. New details of Mrs. Blair’s involvement in the Oram’s case have been uncovered, please read below for more details.

We are paying Mrs. Blair gbp 200,000.
Getting her on the Turkish side...
(The Mail on Sunday Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
Cherie Blair was last night at the centre of a fresh row over her business affairs after a Mail on Sunday investigation uncovered new details about her latest high profile legal case.

More from Jean Christou on this developing story below:

REPORTS in a British newspaper that the Turkish government is paying part of Cherie Blair’s £200,000 Sterling fee to defend the Orams shows that the case has political significance despite protest to the contrary by Downing Street, the government said yesterday. 

Britain’s Mail on Sunday went undercover to investigate the case of Linda and David Orams, who are attempting to justify their possession of land in the north belonging to Greek Cypriot Meletis Apostolides. 

The British Prime Minster Tony Blair’s barrister wife is taking part in the defence of the couple, who are appealing a Nicosia court decision ordering them to demolish the £160,000 villa they built on Apostolides’ property in Lapithos. 

As the Nicosia court cannot enforce its decisions in the north, the case has been accepted by the UK courts. 

Cherie Blair’s law firm Matrix, was brought in by the Orams’ Turkish Cypriot lawyer Hassan Vahib, 44, a property developer and former Labour councillor in London, who is also one of the parties paying the couple’s legal costs. 

Downing Street has insisted that Blair is acting in her professional capacity as a lawyer but a reporter from the Mail on Sunday discovered otherwise while posing as someone interested in buying property in the north. 

The paper said it spoke to the operations manager of Vahib’s property firm Troy Lake UK (Cyprus) Ltd, Firtac Ortac, who confirmed the firm was contributing to Cherie Blair's costs and that the reason for hiring her was because of her political influence. 

“At a meeting with an undercover Mail on Sunday reporter he said: 'We are paying her more than £200,000. The clients are not paying. We are. We can afford it and we have much ourselves to gain. When Mrs Blair wins, it will set a precedent and the market will rocket.' 

“Ortac also said that the hiring of the Prime Minister's wife was, for them, a political act, the paper said: “We have about 25 lawyers working for us, so there is no shortage of legal brains. But you see the North-South dispute is also very political. 

“They (the Greek Cypriots) have made it political, so now we get political too. What can be better than getting the wife of the British Prime Minister on our team? She is a noted human rights lawyer too, so simply getting her involved and on the Turkish side is fantastic,” he added.
Ortac claimed that the Turkish government was also paying Blair because they were 'playing a political game' and boasted that Vahib was in regular contact with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, the paper said. 

Blair agreed to take the case following hush-hush meetings with Vahib and the Orams in Istanbul last May. “Cherie Blair spent three days in the city, during which she was a guest of the British consulate. However, she demanded that the reason for her trip be kept confidential,” it added. 

Another property developer, several of whom are involved in financing the case, said they were hoping she could use her political influence in the case. “What can be better than getting the wife of the British Prime Minister on our team?” said one. “When Mrs Blair wins, it will set a precedent and the market will rocket.” 

Government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said it was obvious from the report that those who hired Blair hired her specifically in order to exploit her politically as the wife of the British Prime Minister. 

“What is particularly important is that someone appears to admit that the Turkish Government will pay all of part of the fees of Mrs Blair,” he said. 

“Perhaps they believe by hiring her they might be able to influence the course of British justice. Is the impression not created that by accepting such a politically loaded case, Mrs Blair has given insufficient weight to her position as the wife of the British Prime Minister?” 

Chrysostomides said it should also be borne in mind that the British Foreign Ministry has on many occasions published warnings to Britons about the legal minefield of purchasing property in the north. “It seems Mrs Blair has not taken these warnings into consideration,” he said. 

The Orams told the Mail on Sunday that they had agreed with their legal team not to speak until after the conclusion of the case. 

“All I can say to you now is that we are extremely confident of winning,” Linda Orams said. 

My personal opinion: How can Mrs B-liar, sorry I mean Mrs Booth, not now withdraw from this case?

War Chest

The RoC government estimates as many as 10,000 foreigners living in Greek Cypriot property in the North. The Turks are obviously selling off occupied land to citizens from Western Europe in an attempt to prevent Greek Cypriots from returning to their properties. Greek Cypriot refugees like Mr. Apostolides continue to claim their title deeds through legal means, because of this...thousands of EU citizens, mostly Britons, this year formed a UK-registered lobby group to defend the rights of foreigners living in properties formerly owned by Greek Cypriots. This lobby group has built a huge war chest that is currently being used in the Orams trial. An assault on this war chest should be made immediately by opening up new lawsuits against foreigners who are citizens of an EU member State other than Britain and who have purchased property in the North that is in dispute. Speaking of the Orams, new developments today...please read below for more details.

British court to hear Orams case
Meanwhile criticism mounts over Cherie Blair’s involvement in the case

By Philippos Stylianou

As Greek Cypriot reaction to the involvement of the British Prime Minister’s wife Cherie Blair in the controversial Orams case widens, the High Court in London is today expected to hear the positions of the two sides and decide how to proceed.

Turkish Cypriot UK solicitor Hassan Vahit, who appears for Linda Orams, said Cherie Blair had made a significant contribution in drafting Mrs Orams’ appeal. He noted that he expected the trial to open towards either the end of January or the beginning of February 2006.

Constantis Kandounas, the Nicosia lawyer of Greek Cypriot refugee Meletis Apostolides who won a Nicosia District Court decision against the Oramses, said they were waiting to hear what the Attorneys of the other side had to say in the British Supreme Court.

He did not rule out that Cherie Blair acting for the Orams would ask for a postponement until an appeal by Linda Orams in the Supreme Court of Cyprus was heard. A date for the hearing of the Cyprus appeal has yet to be set.

The Cyprus court ordered Linda Orams and her husband David to demolish a luxury villa they built on land they had bought from a Turkish Cypriot in the occupied part of Cyprus and which belonged to Meletis Apostolides.

British assets

In the light of being unable to enforce the decision in the occupied areas, Apostolides asked the decision to be enforced in the British Courts against the Orams’ British assets under an EU arrangement.

The British High Court will not dwell on the merits of the case but on matters of procedure and public interest.

Asked to comment on the retaining of Cherie Blair from the Matrix Chambers to represent the Orams in the case, Candounas simply said: “We are delighted.”

His client Meletis Apostolides has retained the services of Blackstone Chambers, one of the most prestigious of the UK, with Thomas Beazley QC leading a team of other lawyers and solicitors. They include Simon Congdon of the Holmans Fenwick Willan Solicitors and another QC from Brickstone Chambers.

“We regard the issue as a strictly legal one and we shall fight along the lines of an impartial and objective process,” Apostolides himself said when asked about having the British Prime Minister’s wife against him.

Cherie Blair nee Booth spoke out on Wednesday for the first time in the face of mounting criticism for undertaking the defence of the Oramses.

Autonomous

Repeating what the British High Commissioner in Nicosia had already said, she told the daily ‘Simerini’ that her capacity as wife of the British Prime Minister had nothing to do with it. “I am an autonomous lawyer and follow the rules of my profession,” she said.

Mrs Blair added that the Orams had bought the property in good faith and now they risked losing that property and their property in the UK without any compensation.

Commenting on Cherie Blair’s statement, Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said yesterday that he did not think the rights of the Orams weighed more heavily than the rights of the Greek Cypriot refugees.

He added that all these matters would be raised with the British government in the context of the dialogue established when President Papadopoulos met Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.

The British Charge d’ Afaires in Cyprus Robert Fenn Peter was summoned to the Foreign Office to hear a complaint from Permanent Secretary Sotos zakhaios about Mrs Blair involvement in the Orams case.

Although President Papadopoulos and Foreign Minister George Iacovou expressed their strong displeasure at the development, they both stated their trust in the impartiality of British justice.

Cypriot reactions to Cherie Blair embracing the cause of Britons who bought stolen Greek property in the occupied areas against official British policy was given wide coverage by the British press.

The National Federation of UK Cypriots said the Cypriot community was upset, bitter and disappointed at the action of Mrs Blair to support before the court of justice those who violated the human rights of Greek Cypriot refugees and international laws and principles.

They called on her to reconsider supporting the usurpers of other people’s property.

Poltical parties and organisations issued statements condemning Cherie Blair’s action.

Brian Coleman, London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden has criticised Cherie Blair’s decision to defend the Orams. In an announcement he said:
“I am appalled that Cherie Blair has chosen to defend Mr and Mrs Orams. People who buy illegally acquired properties are making the situation in Cyprus far worse for those dispossessed by the Turkish invasion. I hope this case will serve as a warning to others that buying illegally acquired properties will not be tolerated.”

Cyprus Weekly, December 2005