JAILED Turkish Cypriot tycoon Asil Nadir has renounced his British citizenship in order to return to Turkey, reported Turkish Cypriot daily Afrika yesterday.
According to the paper, the Turkish Cypriot businessman, who is currently in Belmarsh Prison in the UK, is now one step closer to returning to Turkey after being sentenced to ten years in jail last August by a British court after being found guilty of stealing £28.8 million from Polly Peck and its shareholders.
Afrika reported that Turkish Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin gave instructions to the Turkish ambassador in London to assist proceedings for Nadir to be transferred from Britain to Turkey. As part of the effort, Nadir was asked to renounce his citizenship and hand over his British passport.
Last February, the Daily Mail reported that Nadir who was ordered by a UK court to pay back £5 million of the money he stole from his Polly Peck business empire, came up with the money despite telling British judges he was broke.
According to the Daily Mail, the payment paved the way for him to secure a prisoner transfer to Turkey, from where reports suggest he will be allowed to return to the occupied north, where he will be put under ‘house arrest’.
Nadir fled from the UK to northern Cyprus in 1993 but returned in 2010 to face trial and ‘clear his name’. Polly Peck, a leading stock exchange conglomerate, collapsed in 1990 after Nadir stole money which he sent abroad through a complex series of companies.