Briton loses appeal in property dispute, vows to take case to ECHR

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the appeal against a defamation by Conor O’Dwyer, a British man who has been involved in a lengthy court battle over a property he bought in the Famagusta district in 2005.

O’Dwyer was also ordered to pay a €3,000 in legal fees. He had appealed the case filed by developer Christoforos Karayiannas and Son Ltd accusing him of breach of contract and of defamation.

The supreme court overruled O’Dwyer’s appeal and reaffirmed the initial €60,000 in damages to the company, a national record, for calling the developers ‘liars’ on his blog.

In addition to that, the court denied the Briton compensation for the many trips to Cyprus he has had to take over the years to fight his case, as well as for the rent on his flat in London.

Around 15 years ago, O’Dwyer sold his house in the UK when he decided to buy property in Cyprus.

According to O’Dwyer, after having already paid €113,000 for the property in the Famagusta area, the developer decided to sell his house to another British family at a higher price.

He was then forced to rent a flat in London and endure a lengthy legal battle with the developers.

He eventually received compensation. But his lawyer Yiannos Georgiades said: “The compensation the court gave my client is very small because the judges chose the lowest evaluation for the property, refusing to evaluate it when the developers resold it to another client,” he said.

Georgiades said had the judges decided to evaluate the house at the time the case was heard, which would have come in a €398,200, O’Dwyer would have received compensation of €119,000 on top of the €113,000 he paid to the developers, instead of just the €28,000 he received as compensation.

With regards to the defamation suit, O’Dwyer’s lawyer said that “one of the staples of a free society is that people should be able to speak freely. Statements that express opinion are not actionable as defamation no matter how offensive, vituperative and unreasonable they may be”.

“Moreover, in the context of statements pertaining to issues of consumer advocacy, personal opinions about goods and services, like the ones Conor published on his blog, are matters of legitimate public concern and protected speech,” Georgiades added.

The lawyer called the situation “absurd”. He said a UK citizen decided to buy a property in Cyprus and sold his home there to do so but ended up seeing his hard-earned money kept by the developers, forcing him to rent a flat in London because his dream of having a house in Cyprus didn’t happen. He said they then resold the house that he paid for and beat him up twice. Despite being found guilty of assault, the developers never went to prison.

“But the worst thing is that not only did he suffer all these things and the wrongdoers never went to prison, they were also awarded by our justice system a huge reward of €60,000 because my client dared to complain about what our court decided he was right to complain about.”

Georgiades said the next step was to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights, saying there were more than enough grounds to do so.

O’Dwyer called the verdict “a blatant miscarriage of justice.”

“The highest court in Cyprus should have thrown the book at what is a dangerous, criminal and infamous property developer, but it didn’t,” he said. “It’s taken us 14 years to exhaust the due process in Cyprus but they haven’t exhausted us. We will now have to take Cyprus to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Briton said this was just another court ruling designed to have a chilling effect on property victims and foreigners on the island. “Today, the highest civil court ruled that selling the same house twice is not only legal, it’s also a profitable venture. There’s no deterrent to stop any other developer from doing the same to another buyer,” he added.

O’Dwyer questioned whether the judges had examined all the evidence provided in just 16 days, the time span between the first hearing into the appeal, and the issuance of the verdict. The appeal alone has taken nearly eight years to be heard at all, having been filed in 2012.

“I will never stop telling how they kept our money and sold the same house twice. I will never stop telling how they assaulted me twice, put me in hospital and got away with it all. And I will never stop telling how the entire justice system, from the policemen in the streets to the supreme court judges, have abused my rights,” said O’Dwyer.

“The last 14 years of my life have been for nothing, even worse than nothing. The judiciary has done more damage than the developers. It has been hell.”

On the other side, the Karayiannas brothers’ lawyer Andrianna Klaedes praised the judges’ decision regarding the defamation appeal filed by O’Dwyer.

“All grounds of appeal were dismissed by the supreme court today. The blog in which O’Dwyer published his defamatory claims was established long before the matter was taken to court. The defamation which O’Dwyer has been found guilty of has been going on for many years, hence the decision of imposing such a high fine for his actions.”

Klaedes said O’Dwyer never compiled with the court ruling that ordered him to remove the offending website, nor did he ever apologise for defaming her client’s name and destroying the company’s reputation.

She rejected the claims that the court could not have examined all the evidence they were presented with in just the short time frame between the appeal and the verdict.

“That is simply not true,” she said. “The judges have been examining the evidence in their possession long before the appeal and to say the opposite is simply untrue.”

Called to comment on O’Dwyer’s decision to take the matter to the ECHR, Klaedes said her clients were legally on sound footing and not concerned. “We won the case in Cyprus and we will win it again at the European Court of Human Rights,” she said.

Marios Karayiannas, one of the developers, also broke his silence on Friday after the verdict was issued and said he was “extremely grateful the whole matter is now over.”

“The name of my company has finally been restored. I want to make clear that these 14 long years of legal battles cost me an enormous amount of business, which I will never get back,” he said. “This case damaged me financially and I am glad that thanks to today’s verdict I can finally clear my name.”

Karayiannas echoed his lawyer’s comments on O’Dwyer’s decision to take the case to the ECHR, saying: “He can take the matter wherever he wants. He lost once, he will lose again.”

By Jonathan Shkurko | Cyprus Mail | February 21, 2020

See the original article on the Cyprus Mail for comments from the expat community.

Conor O’Dwyer loses Supreme Court appeal

JUST 16 working days after the Supreme Court heard British man Conor O’Dwyer’s appeal against the 2012 ruling of the case filed by property development company Christoforos Karayiannas and Son Ltd in 2006, he was in Court this morning to hear from the judge that his appeal had been rejected.

Given the complexity of the case and the volume of evidence to be reviewed, which dates back over more than a decade, it was considered that it would take the judge much longer to arrive at a decision. The judicial system in Cyprus is notoriously slow.

During this morning’s brief court hearing the judge delivered the verdict and handed the 35-page judgement to Mr O’Dwyer’s lawyer; the full judgement was not read to those present in court.

Mr O’Dwyer will continue his fight for justice and plans to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

I spoke with Mr O’Dwyer’s lawyer, Yiannos Georgiades, for his thoughts on the ruling of the Supreme Court. He said that he was very disappointed with the handling of the case; he believes there are grounds for proceeding with the ECHR for the infringements of Conor’s right to a fair trial and his right to freedom of speech. (These rights are guaranteed by Article 6 and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.)

The people who are clearly in the wrong have been rewarded for their wrong-doings. They were convicted of assault (twice) but haven’t gone to prison, despite selling his house unlawfully they’ve been allowed to keep Conor’s money. But the court failed to compensate Conor the full amount because they awarded the other side damages of €60,000 by penalising him for defamation because he dared to call the wrong-doers ‘liars’ and ‘crooks’ on his website.

It’s appalling. It’s as if they were rewarding the wrong-doers!

Mr Georgiades explained the ECHR has ruled that consumers should be free to express their opinion and complain about the way they’ve been treated by a company, even if they use strong and insulting words. The right to protect one’s reputation gives way to one’s right to free of speech as it’s in the public interest for an individual to freely express their opinion about the way they’ve been treated.

What message is this giving to people who come to our country to buy property or invest? If they’re unlucky enough to have a dispute, it will drag on for 14 years – and if they dare to complain about what’s happened to them, they will run the risk of being penalised and end up paying a fortune to the people who wronged them!

By Nigel Howarth | Cyprus Property News | February 21, 2020

See the original article on the Cyprus Property News for comments from the expat community.

The long road to justice

Conor O’Dwyer is nothing if not tenacious. The British man has fought a 15-year battle with Cyprus’ justice system

“Unfortunately, I don’t think I will ever be able to live in Cyprus, not after what’s happened to me,” Conor O’Dwyer told the Sunday Mail this week.

“It breaks my heart because this country was the one where me and my family chose to build the house of our dreams. How can I see a future here after what I had to go through?”

It is a sad but completely legitimate question posed by the British man who bought a property in the Famagusta district back in 2005. The dream ended in a bitter legal dispute when the developer resold his house to another British family at a higher price.

Into the mix came two assault cases brought against the developers when O’Dwyer fought his corner, insisting the house was his. The ensuing legal battles brought O’Dwyer face to face with Cyprus’ justice system whose wheels grind notoriously slowly. According to O’Dwyer, it is also stacked against foreigners.

Fifteen years after the fight for his house began, O’Dwyer this week appeared before the supreme court in Nicosia, which was finally hearing his appeal into the 2012 verdict of the case filed by developer company Christoforos Karayiannas and Son Ltd, who accused him of breach of contract and of defamation, after O’Dwyer called them “liars” on his blog, called “Beyond Contempt”.

“Before buying the house in 2005, my wife and I were doing really well in life,” O’Dwyer said.

“Cyprus has always been my and my family’s holiday destination, we came to the island many times and I even served time in the military here,”

Cyprus had joined the EU in 2004 and this, combined with the property boom at the time, persuaded the family to buy a house here.

“It was a great opportunity for us. Even if things weren’t going to work out, we could always sell it at a terrific price, considering the property boom at that time,” O’Dwyer says.

“We were cash buyers, we would have lived here with no mortgage and, according to the contract we signed at the time, I would have had my title deeds within three years. It was the ideal situation. I had no doubts that buying a house in a EU country would present no challenges.”

However, shortly after depositing the contract for the house at the land registry, O’Dwyer started to disagree with the developers over some alleged changes they had made to the plans, some of which he claimed breached the contract and others were misrepresentations at the point of sale.

At this stage, the property was midway through construction and he had already paid €113,000 to the developers.

That’s when O’Dwyer decided to start a blog and tell the story behind the problems he was facing. Within a week of starting the blog, he claims he was assaulted for the first time and decided to close it down.

“It was crazy, I never expected such a thing to happen. The website stayed down for a whole year after the incident.”

He pressed charges for the assault.

In February 2007, O’Dwyer then discovered that his house had been sold at a higher price to another British woman, who had already taken up residence in the now-completed house, despite his contract still in the land registry.

The higher price was reflective of the property boom at the time but his money was never returned.

O’Dwyer decided to re-open his blog, which triggered another serious incident in 2008.

“I was assaulted for the second time, and it was even worse than the first time. I had returned to Cyprus in January 2008 for meetings and to take photos of my house for the civil action.

“Christoforos Karayiannas and his son were alerted to my presence in the village and at the busy junction and in front of dozens of witnesses rammed my car and together with an employee, the three men assaulted me again.”

O’Dwyer was hospitalised for five days and pressed charges again.

After returning to the UK, in August 2008 O’Dwyer decided to camp outside the Cyprus High Commission in London for two months. Thus began his one-man battle to highlight what he came to believe were the perils awaiting foreigners buying property in Cyprus.

“I did that for two reasons. I wanted to get attention after I was assaulted for the second time and I wanted to warn people interested in buying property in Cyprus of the potential risks they might have faced.”

O’Dwyer eventually ended his protest in October 2008 on the promise that his court case would be heard in January 2009.

The developers walked free for the first assault after the prosecutor failed to call O’Dwyer to court and the case was discontinued in his absence.

The developers and their employee were then found guilty for the second assault, but were given a suspended sentence, after a two-year court battle.

The developers then sued O’Dwyer for breach of contract and defamation for what he had written on his blog.

O’Dwyer and his lawyers made a counterclaim for breach of contract.

In 2012, the Larnaca district court ruled that O’Dwyer had not breached any contract and that Karayiannas had unlawfully cancelled it and retained his money. It was also ruled that the house was sold again without his knowledge. However, the court failed to award him any damages.

Instead the court went on to fine O’Dwyer a national record for defamation of €50,000.

“I made 64 flights back and forth from UK to Cyprus to attend lower courts, an absurdity! I spent an absolute fortune. On top of that, it took two years to process my second assault case.”

O’Dwyer said there are striking similarities in the way his case was handled with false rape claim trial of the British woman in Ayia Napa at the end of 2019 which has received such criticism in the British press.

“Firstly, the length of both trials was excruciating. Neither of the two cases needed that much time to be processed, it’s unacceptable.

“Secondly, I can see that in both cases there was a clear victimisation of foreigners, I think it’s a sadly common practice in Cyprus.

“I was the victim of a crime and, somehow, I ended up having to appeal to the supreme court and defend myself. At the same time, the people who assaulted me were found guilty, but were both handed suspended sentences. How is this justice?”

O’Dwyer’s lawyer Yiannos Georgiades claims his client’s case could eventually prove to be useful for the Cypriot justice system.

“I am firmly convinced Conor is doing a favour to our country,” he told the Sunday Mail.

“It motivates us to stand up to those people who give a bad name to our country. It makes us fight for what’s right.

“Conor came here to pursue his dreams, because he loves this country. He did not come here to fight. It’s not him who is making Cyprus look bad.

“Every person who comes here should be treated with respect and have the utmost trust in our justice system. We have the right to protect those who come and invest in our country, just like Conor was planning to do.”

So does O’Dwyer feel he will finally receive justice at the supreme court?

“I hope that they will rule in a way that will allow me to close this horrible chapter of my life. If not, I am fully prepared to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights.”

He insisted his battle is not just for the benefit of foreigners.

“I want to make things better for everyone in Cyprus, a country that I love, but where, unfortunately, I will never be able to live.”

By Jonathan Shkurko | Cyprus Mail | January 26, 2020

See the original article on the Cyprus Mail with comments from the ex-pat community

Supreme court hears British man’s appeal in lengthy property dispute

Conor O’Dwyer, a British man who has been involved in a lengthy and exhausting court battle over a property he bought in the Famagusta district in 2005, presented his appeal to the supreme court in Nicosia on Friday morning.

O’Dwyer appealed the case filed by developer company Christoforos Karayiannas and Son Ltd, who accused him of breach of contract and of defamation.

The appeal alone has taken nearly eight years to be heard, having been filed in 2012.

According to O’Dwyer, after having already paid €113,000 for the property, the developer decided to sell his house to another British family at a higher price.

O’Dwyer claimed not only was the original sale to him registered with the land registry department, but the developer also kept the money he had paid.

O'Dwyer claimed he was also assaulted by the two directors of the company in 2006 and in 2008 and pressed charges.

Christoforos and Marios Karayiannas walked free for the first assault after the prosecutor failed to call O’Dwyer to court and the case was discontinued in his absence. The former attorney-general Petros Clerides refused to refile the case.

The developers and their employee were then found guilty for the second assault, but were given a suspended sentence, after a two-year court battle.

The developers then sued O’Dwyer for breach of contract and defamation after he published his story on his blog and called the developers “liars”.

O’Dwyer and his lawyers made a counterclaim for breach of contract.

The judge at Larnaca district court ruled that O’Dwyer had not breached any contract and that Karayiannas had unlawfully cancelled it and retained his money. It was also ruled that the house was sold again without his knowledge. However, the court failed to award him any damages.

In addition to that, despite the verdict agreeing that Karayiannas’ breach of contract claim was untrue, the court went on to fine O’Dwyer a national record for defamation of €50,000.

O’Dwyer then launched an appeal in 2102 which was finally heard by the supreme court on Friday. No date has been set for the verdict.

“We will patiently wait for the judges’ verdict, like we did throughout the past years,” O’Dwyer’s lawyer Yiannos Georgiades told the Cyprus Mail after they left the court.

“We have strong grounds for our appeal and we made our voices heard today. Conor deserves justice.”

Georgiades stressed that O’Dwyer’s freedom of speech was not respected when the judge found him guilty of defamation.

After Friday’s hearing, former High Commissioner of Cyprus to the UK Euripides Evriviades also showed his support for O’Dwyer’s by tweeting on his official Twitter profile.

“Good luck Conor,” the tweet said. “(I am) with you in spirit. Hope and pray that all works out. Remember vividly our meeting in London. I have the greatest respect for you and for anyone who relentlessly pursues his or her rights within the law and due process.”

Since 2005 O’Dwyer has become active in various groups advising Britons not to buy properties in Cyprus. In March 2019 he organised a protest outside a major property exhibition in London and warned about purchasing houses on the island.
In November the British government upheld its advice of exercising “extreme caution” when buying a property in Cyprus if the title deeds are not readily available.

Jonathan Shkurko | Cyprus Mail | January 24, 2020

See the original article on the Cyprus Mail for comments from the expat community.

After 15 years, British man hopes property fight is finally over

A tortuous 15-year fight over a dodgy property sale and defamation case may finally be coming to an end this Friday when the supreme court is due to hear a British man’s appeal.

The appeal alone has taken nearly eight years to be heard.

In 2005, Conor O’Dwyer bought a property in the Famagusta district which ended in a bitter legal dispute when the developer resold his house to another British family at a higher price.

He has arrived nearly a week early in anticipation of the case and is protesting outside the supreme court in Nicosia. Pictures O’Dwyer posted on Twitter show he has turned up well prepared with posters, toothpaste and a toothbrush, a tent with placards criticising Cypriot justice and other gear to see him through until Friday.

According to O’Dwyer not only was the original sale to him registered with the land registry department, but the developer also kept the money he had paid.

‘This protest is about legal aid, I have spent a fortune on legal fees, travel expenses and translators etc. and now despite being ‘granted’ EU legal aid (Council directive 2002/8/EC) to continue my fight I have never received any funding. My appeal is on Friday, there is nothing translated. I am here to camp outside to expose this injustice because this is not what legal aid should look like.’ C.O’Dwyer

In 2012 courts ruled in favour of O’Dwyer on the grounds of the resale of his home, but also found him guilty of defamation of the developer and he was fined 60,000 euros.

“What we are fighting against is twofold. First is the issue that O’Dwyer won the case but was not awarded all the damages and legal fees he should have got,” his lawyer Giannos Georgiades told the Cyprus Mail on Monday. “And also that his freedom of speech was not respected when the judge found him guilty of defamation.”

Georgiades also says that O’Dwyer is a family man who was dragged into a drawn-out legal battle and went up against property developers at the height of their powers during the building boom of the early 2000s.

Since 2005 O’Dwyer has become active in various groups advising Britons not to buy properties in Cyprus. In March 2019 he organised a protest outside a major property exhibition in London and warned about purchasing houses on the island.

In November the British government upheld its advice of exercising “extreme caution” when buying a property if the title deeds are not readily available.

People buying property in Cyprus in some cases have become “trapped buyers”.

The British High Commission’s advice page still warns that developers take out mortgages on land or property and that signing a contract under these conditions makes the buyer ultimately liable for the loan.

Lawyers are not required to check for mortgages automatically.

While a law in 2015 attempted to solve the incredibly complex issue, as of 2018 there were still as many as 70,000 trapped property buyers without title deeds.

However, member of the House interior committee Andreas Kyprianou told the Cyprus Mail last month that “the 2015 law is working very well and many people have had their title deeds restored, the bill is being enforced.”

“The British government has been warning of this issue for a while, and perhaps there are some people with outstanding issues – but to my knowledge the bill is working well,” Kyprianou concluded.

By Nick Theodoulou | Cyprus Mail | January 21, 2020

See the original article on the Cyprus Mail for comments from the ex-pat community.

Our story so far

This letter from January 2019 to the High Commissioner for the Republic of Cyprus in London, is a comprehensive account of our plight.

Dear Sir,

Thank you for communicating on Twitter, for expressing interest in our situation and willingness to discuss in person. Below is a history of what led me to tell our story on social media and on my website BeyondContempt.com. I’ve detailed what went wrong with our property purchase, the assaults I suffered, the investigations, the court actions thus far and have included some conclusions.

1) When the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU, my wife and I saw an opportunity to move our young family there and start a business. Cyprus had long been our favourite holiday destination and we loved the people we met. Before choosing Cyprus, my wife and I were doing well in life, we were cash buyers for a house with no mortgage and we thought we were safe buying within the EU.

2) In August 2005 we bought a house from Christoforos Karayiannas and Son Ltd. It was an ‘off plan’ property with a delivery date of July 2006. We used an independent lawyer and our contract was deposited in the land registry for specific performance.

3) In February 2006 we disagreed with the developers over changes they had made to the plans, some of which breached the contract and others were clear misrepresentations at the point of sale. At this stage, the property was midway through construction and we had paid €113,000 in payments. We continued as contracted and kept up stage payments.

4) During an inspection trip to the development, I was assaulted by Christoforos Karayiannas and his son Marios Karayiannas, both directors of the company. I captured the assault on camera and they were arrested. After their arrest, they then claimed that I had breached our contract and they stated that they will keep all our money as compensation. A civil case for breach of contract was started by them in 2006 (case 365/2006).

5) In February 2007, we discovered that our house had been sold at a higher price to a British lady Mrs Michelle McDonald who had already taken up residence. This had happened in 2006 despite our contract still in the land registry. The higher price was reflective of the property boom at the time. When we discovered our house was occupied by another family, we wrote to Mrs McDonald but got no response.

6) A letter from our lawyer was then sent and a reply came back from her lawyer George Pittadjis stating “I am writing to you in answer to your letter to my client Michelle McDonald…” “She bought it in good faith and after she was told that a previous contract had been cancelled…” This was a lie; our contract had not been and could not be unilaterally cancelled. It was still lodged in the land registry for specific performance and we were the beneficial owners of the house.

7) It is worth noting that George Pittadjis was also at that time, the lawyer for Christoforos Karayiannas and Son Ltd. Years later in the private criminal prosecution, George Pittadjis committed perjury. Despite writing the above letter he stated under oath that he was not Mrs McDonald’s lawyer, that he had never met her before and he had no knowledge of any document of sale between Mrs McDonald and Christoforos Karayiannas and Son Ltd. This was reported to the Judge, the Chief of Police and the former Attorney General Petros Clerides and a year later the response came back that no criminal action would be taken.

8) In mid-2007, our lawyer began writing letters to the Police, the Attorney General and The Minister of Justice urging them to act against the developers, the lawyers involved and the unlawful occupant under section 303a of the criminal code. The authorities took no action.

303A.-(1) Any person who, with intent to defraud, deals in immovable property belonging to another is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.

(2) For the purposes of the present section a person shall be deemed to be dealing in immovable property where

(a) [that person] Sells to another, or rents to another, or mortgages to another or encumbers in any way, or makes available for use by another immovable property, or

(b) advertises or otherwise promotes the sale or renting out or mortgaging or charging in any way to another of immovable property or the use thereof by another, or

(c) concludes an agreement for the sale to another, or the renting out to another, or the mortgaging to another, or the charging in any way to the benefit of another, or the use by another of immovable property, or

(d) accepts the immovable property which is the object of the dealing as this is defined in the present subsection.

9) In late 2007, Christoforos and Marios Karayiannas walked free from court for my first assault. The local prosecutor didn’t call me to court and the case was discontinued in my absence. This wasn’t a mistake but a deliberate act by the prosecutor. That prosecutor had told my lawyer that they were going to adjourn the case as the court is too busy and that I’m not to show up. Then two days later in our absence, they filed a motion for nolle prosequi and the case was discontinued. The former Attorney General Petros Clerides refused to refile the case.

10) Just 3 months later, in January 2008 I was assaulted again. I had returned to Cyprus for meetings and to take photos of my house for the civil action. The developers were contracted to build a detached house and had instead built a link-detached house. This and other breaches needed to be documented for the court. Christoforos Karayiannas and his son Marios Karayiannas were alerted to my presence in the village and at the busy junction and in front of dozens of witnesses rammed my car and together with an employee, the three men assaulted me again. This assault was so severe, that I was in the hospital for five days, and it took six months till I was back to full health.

11) Months went by and despite letters to the Government, the former Attorney General Petros Clerides and the Police, no one would do anything against my developers. No one would investigate the unlawful selling of my house and no indictment or court date for my second assault was forthcoming. I was determined that this assault would not go the same way as the first, so in August 2008 I camped outside your High Commission in St James’s Square and remained there for 74 days and nights protesting my abuse and your government's inaction. I only left that pavement when finally, I was assured that a court date was set for my second assault and that an investigation into the unlawful selling of my house would take place.

12) Not long after leaving that protest, we got a response from the former Attorney General’s office stating that they will take no action as they have found no criminal offence in the selling my house to another. When asked for clarification of that three lined letter, the reply came back, that the Attorney General does not have to provide clarification. When pressed by the Cyprus Mail, Paulina Evthyvoulou–Evthymiou, the Counsel for the Republic said:

“This is a civil case and not a matter for the Attorney General,” she said. “If he had a judgement from a civil case that he was the owner, it would be different. The civil case is unresolved. I don’t have an owner and I’m not in a position to decide who the owner is,”

It seems that the former Attorney General Petros Clerides decided that in Cyprus, criminal law is now subordinate to civil law, whereas the long-standing position has been the reverse.

13) In January 2009 I began attending court in Cyprus which lasted four years and exhausted all our finances. While undergoing around 30 trips and spending months away from my family, I had about every right to a fair trial abused.

14) As the former Attorney General saw no criminal offence in selling the same house twice, we had little choice but to proceed with a private criminal prosecution against Christoforos Karayiannas and Son Ltd, the two directors and Michelle McDonald (case 1912/09). At Larnaca District Court, the judge accepted evidence from the Department of Lands and Surveys who confirmed our contract had been duly signed and lodged with the land registry for specific performance. The court heard evidence that we made stage payments of €113,000 until the developer refused to accept any further payment. The judge accepted that the property was resold to another without our consent or applying for a court order to withdraw the contract from the land registry.

15) The judge ruled that there was a case to answer. However, the defendants chose not to give any verbal or written testimony and the judge proceeded to find them not guilty. She acquitted them from all charges and ordered us to pay costs. The ruling stated that although we submitted a sales contract to the land registry, that did not mean, we automatically and in perpetuity had become the owners of the residence and that the civil courts must first decide who the beneficial owner of a property is.

16) Therefore, upon that judgement the situation remained unchanged, our money was still with the developer and our house still occupied. We appealed the verdict and disturbingly, in October 2013 the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision in full, acquitting the developers and the occupant of all criminal charges.

17) It is clear then, that according to this judgement, a contract deposited at the land registry no longer means you are the beneficial owner of that property. In July 2009 while addressing the title deeds issue, Mr Neoclis Sylikiotis, the former Minister of the Interior stated:-

“It must also become clear that the ownership status of a buyer-owner of immovable property in Cyprus is definitely secured and cannot be challenged, as long as the buyer-owner has submitted the buying-contract to the Department of Lands and Surveys.”

This statement is now false. The Supreme Court has made it clear that it is no longer a criminal offence for a developer to sell the same property repeatedly. This is now a civil issue and the buyers must first prove to the civil courts any claim over the property. The current time scale for a civil case is 13-14 years. Our case turns 13 years old in March.

18) In January 2011 for the civil action in the first assault, Christoforos and Marios Karayiannas were found liable, but the damages awarded did not cover my legal fees, let alone my expenses for attending court and barely covered the damage to the video camera that recorded the assault.

19) In the criminal case for the second assault (case 4155/2008) Christoforos and Marios Karayiannas and their employee were found guilty but given a suspended sentence. A suspended sentence after a two-year court battle. My cross-examination alone took fourteen court days, not consecutive days but spread over months. I endured over twenty hours of cross-examination for an attack that took less than ten minutes.

20) I was forced by the court to fly back and forth and spend months away from my family, all at my expense. I was abused on the stand and through exhaustion, I broke down many times. I begged the judge not to do this as I was the victim of the crime. What I went through in court over those two years was worse than the assault itself and it cost me tens of thousands of pounds. During one abusive session, Karayiannas’ lawyer Efthimios Flourentzou shouted “You deserved what you got” as I showed pictures of my injuries. Apparently, I deserved what I got because I told my story on the internet. In court, the judge sought no apology for the comment. I complained about this abuse at the highest levels, which resulted in a meeting at the Presidential Palace with Mr Christos Christofides, Director of the President’s Office. Nothing was done to help although soon after Mr Efthimios Flourentzou was made Minister of Communications.

21) The verdict and sentencing made no sense, not in the law of Cyprus or English Common Law. The judge misapplied case law that can reduce murder to manslaughter and said that the defendants suffered a sudden and temporary loss of self-control when they attacked me. That case law was misused first to reduce the sentence and then misused again to suspended it entirely, another legal error. The prosecution appealed the sentence.

22) The appeal was heard without the lower court transcripts, so the Supreme Court did not hear that this was my second assault or that the accused had phoned the police ahead of the attack to say they were on their way to do it. This assault was premeditated and not a sudden and temporary loss of self-control. Without any court transcripts, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the lower court’s decision in full and made the comment that the suspended sentence was appropriate because the accused were always willing to plead guilty. The accused put up a two-year fight in court and were never willing to plead guilty to any charge.

23) Karayiannas father and son then put up another two-year fight in the civil case where again they were found liable for the assault and again, I was awarded virtually nothing. Nothing for my legal fees, nothing for the four years of flights and accommodation, not even the money for the car they rammed or the camera they smashed was awarded. I was granted legal aid under EU directive 2002/8/EC which deals with cross border disputes, but this was never paid. This case is being appealed and it’s now over 11 years since this assault.

24) September 2012 saw the judgement for the civil case 365/2006. This lawsuit by Karayiannas was claiming breach of contract and defamation for publications on my website. We had a counterclaim for breach of contract. The judge at Larnaca District Court ruled that we did not breach our contract and that Karayiannas had unlawfully cancelled it and had unlawfully retained our money. It was ruled that the house was sold again without our knowledge. However, in another atrocious decision, the court failed to award us any damages. We got nothing for our legal fees which by then exceeded the amount they stole. Nothing for the rise in the value of the house. Nothing for our expenses in attending court, flying back and forth for years. Nothing for the years in rented accommodation and of course no punitive damages or any penalty to prevent another developer doing the same again to another British buyer.

25) Despite the verdict agreeing that Karayiannas’ claim, that I breached the contract was untrue, the court went on to fine me a national record for defamation of €50,000 for merely calling my developers liars on my website. I have been telling my story on the internet since 2006 of how I’ve been treated as a customer and there was no defamation on my website. The company showed no damages for defamation as they refused to bring their financial accounts to court, but €50,000 was awarded to them anyway. On top of that record-breaking fine for defamation, I was also fined €10,000 for the use of a word. For calling the company Karayanus instead of Karayiannas on a page on my website. I used that derogatory name as a customer against this company, only after my second assault, after I’d been hospitalized and after the fraud of reselling our house had already been exposed.

26) This ruling was given by a judge who refused to recuse himself. Our case had fallen into the lap of a Judge Tefkros Economou. We asked the judge to recuse himself because of an unusual action he had personally taken against me in favour of Karayiannas some years earlier. In 2008, Judge Economou had personally handed over a file to the Attorney General for an investigation of criminal liability against me, for the publication of the audio of my business conversations with Karayiannas. The Attorney General found no criminal liability.

27) We knew we wouldn’t get a fair hearing with Judge Tefkros Economou and that something was very wrong from the outset, so we asked him to recuse himself and he refused. Now a Supreme Court Judge, Tefkros Economou is in the news this week for presiding over a case against the Bank of Cyprus. Many people are unhappy because his wife worked for the bank. I waited 6 years for my day in the district court and it is a terrible feeling, standing before a judge you know is against you from the outset.

28) There were many things wrong in the courtroom. The lawyer representing Christoforos Karayiannas and Son Ltd was Ms Adrianna Klaedes. Ms Adrianna Klaedes was previously known as Mr Andrew Klydes. Mr Andrew Klydes once represented me in this same case and was key in early litigation. I was horrified when he swapped sides. This was brought to the attention of Judge Economou who did nothing except wave away any related testimony and refused to accept any evidence showing this to be the case. Judge Economou made no comment to this in his verdict.

29) In this case, I was granted legal aid under EU directive 2002/8/EC which deals with cross border disputes within the EU (see attached Cyprus Mail article). To be granted this in Cyprus was not a simple form filling exercise but many trips and a mini-trial to prove I could no longer afford to continue. In a few short years, we went from buying a house in cash to debt and living in rented accommodation. Our life savings had gone to the property developer, my lawyer and years of expenses in attending court in the criminal actions where I was a witness for the state.

30) However, although I was ‘granted’ this legal aid it was never paid, hampering my case in court. No official court translator would work the case for fear the court would not pay them. Without legal aid, I could not afford a trained translator so instead, I had to rely on a bilingual expat. I could not afford any documents translated nor bring in any expert witnesses. I walked out of court several times in protest of no translator and ceased proceedings. My lawyer walked out too because he was not paid and only returned on the promise he would be paid at the end, but he never was.

31) We are appealing on many grounds including the refusal of the judge to step aside and have a hearing date of 10th April 2019 (appeal 435/2012). This is the last opportunity for the Judiciary of Republic of Cyprus to resolve the issue.

32) For a fair hearing on 10th April 2019 (appeal 435/2012) we need the legal aid that was granted under EU directive to be paid, so we can afford to attend court and pay for a professional translator (see paragraphs 29 & 30).

33) For the appeal, we also need all transcripts of the lower court’s proceedings (case 365/2006) to be given in English or in a digital format so that I can translate them electronically. It is unfair to deny us both the funds to translate paper documents and the digital copies. It has been six years since proceedings and these transcripts have not been produced in any form. Remember, the lower court transcripts were not produced at the criminal appeal for my second assault and the case was lost without them (see paragraphs 21 & 22). I do not want history to repeat itself.

34) I also need my expenses for attending court in the criminal case refunded (case 4155/2008). Although the victim of the crime I was merely a witness for the state and gave my receipts to the prosecutor for attending court. I undertook many trips and had to spend eight weeks away from my family just to complete my testimony for a ten-minute attack. The court forced me to do this and assured me that my expenses would be paid at the end (see paragraphs 19 & 20).

35) Unfortunately, I have been following property cases for thirteen years now and no British individual has ever got justice in Cyprus. No one has ever won their case and been awarded real damages, expenses including their legal fees back. It has never happened. If a court case of fourteen years isn’t chilling enough for a British citizen, the truth is, not one property developer or crooked lawyer has ever been truly punished. We British, as I have shown above, win our court cases but loose outright

36) I fervently believe that our nationality has affected the way in which our cases have been dealt with and pursued. If action had been taken early against our property developer, then much of what happened could have been avoided. We have found no solace in the legal system, the courts have been viciously uneven and after thirteen years of litigation, our property developer remains unpunished.

37) Legal precedent established the rule that a contract in the land registry secures your rights as the beneficial owner of that property. I have now proved in the civil courts that I did not breach my contract and that our house was sold to another. If a house is sold twice then that should be a criminal fraud and you cannot prevent a customer from sharing his experience online. I have little doubt that we are heading to the ECHR where the conduct of my property developer will be defended by the state and the burden placed on the taxpayers. This will not concern Christoforos Karayiannas and Son Ltd nor their lawyer Ms Adrianna Klaedes, who have both been in court on several occasions for not paying their taxes.

38) I have laid out our abuses and they all stem from the Republic of Cyprus and are continuing today. Despite our letters, our protests, the press and my online campaign, I regret to say, that in thirteen years we have had no help from any government authority or industry body.

39) We have lost everything and this whole situation and the time taking to resolve, has had a terribly detrimental effect on us and our family life. It has ruined our lives, but we will never give up in our pursuit of justice.

40) I have given a brief outline of our thirteen-year plight here, tried to stick to court ascertained facts and I’ve kept my opinion to a minimum. I have however, excluded some serious issues which cannot be explained away by accident, oversight or overwork, all of which have led us to believe that corruption and collusion have been at play. This sensitive and controversial area is more difficult to demonstrate in a letter and I would like to take you up on your offer to meet in person where we can discuss my situation and I can share my concerns.

Yours sincerely,
Conor O’Dwyer