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Roundup: Cyprus further tightens security measures, expels six suspects

Xinhua, November 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Cyprus has further tightened security measures against possible terrorist acts following decisions by a meeting of European interior and justice ministers in Brussels on Friday, Justice and Security Minister Ionas Nikolaou told Xinhua on Monday.

"Authorities at airports and ports are strengthening security measures. We are in continuous cooperation with other countries," Nikolaou said.

The minister was talking after the Police revealed that they intercepted six suspects on Saturday when they arrived from Switzerland, after a tip from the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol.

Authorities said five of them are of Turkish origin and one of Algerian extraction.

The message said that three of the six French speaking men, aged between 25 and 32, are connected to radical organizations.

"Based on the results of their questioning and other data obtained by the Police we believe that all six have such connections," Nicolaou said.

"We have been exchanging information with other countries on the issue," he added.

He said that all six will be sent back to Switzerland within the day.

A Police spokesman said the suspects will be put on a plane to Switzerland after the completion of the required process.

Cypriot authorities beefed up their security measures after the Paris attacks on Nov. 13, including additional surveillance of foreign embassies and closer guarding of public buildings.

Nikolaou said that Cyprus has to be on constant alert as the European country is the closest to the fighting fields of the Islamic State, lying only about 100 km from Cyprus.

Authorities have established that young Europeans sympathetic to radical organizations have used Cyprus as a stepping stone to join the Islamic State forces.

They arrived legally in the EU island-country and then they crossed into the northern part of Cyprus occupied by Turkish troops in 1974, in reaction to a coup by officers of the military junta ruling Greece at the time.

They flew to Turkey from an airport which the Cypriot authorities have declared as illegal and joined the Islamic State in either Syria or Iraq.

Islamic State activists have also sent Cypriot registered twin-cabin trucks to Syria through the northern part of Cyprus.

"As an EU member Cyprus has to be on guard to the highest degree to safeguard against infiltration of incoming or outgoing Islamic State activists," said Nikolaou.

He said that measures had to be further tightened after the foreign minister said Cyprus' facilities were at the disposal of France in its fight against the Islamic State.

Cyprus has an air base in Paphos on the western coast of the island, which is already at the disposal of French planes to use for refueling and maintenance.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said during a joint press conference with French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Monday that he had offered the use of Britain's RAF base at Akrotiri, on the southern shores of Cyprus, for French aircraft engaged in counter-IS operations. Endit