Cyprus-U.S. ties strained over Sevan extradition

Cyprus-U.S. diplomatic ties have been strained after the Nicosia government’s refusal to cooperate in efforts to extradite former United Nations oil-for-food programme director Benon Sevan, according to local press reports.

Sevan, 69, a Cypriot of Armenian descent was indicted in New York last month on charges of bribery and corruption in connection with the OFFP, which yielded millions in kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein regime.

However, in the absence of an extradition treaty, citizens from either country cannot be extradited without the approval of the Attorney General of that country.

Sevan is presently in Cyprus where he is also acting on behalf of the New York-based AGBU organisation that is trying to sell off the $158 million estate of the Melkonian Armenian school in Nicosia that was left to the charity corporation in trust by the founders in the 1920s.

Sevan is sharing the same lawyers who are defending the AGBU in a California federal court case challenging the AGBU’s rights over the Melkonian estate.
“Diplomatic episode with the U.S.A.” declared the daily Alithia on its front page, adding that while the U.S. government had been promised by the former Cyprus Ambassador Evripides Evriviades every assistance in the matter, the Foreign Ministry in Nicosia declared on February 5 that nothing of this sort had been requested.

“US congressmen request Sevan’s extradition” reported the Cyprus Mail, which added that the two members of congress, Republican Tom Lantos, who chairs the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, and another Republican, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, in a letter to Andreas Kakouris, the Cypriot ambassador in the US, said Cyprus’ membership in the European Union was seen as “heralding a new era of international cooperation by your country.”

“In this context, we trust that your government will undertake robust efforts to investigate, locate and extradite Mr Sevan, so that he may be fairly tried for his alleged violations of United States law and international confidence,” the letter said.
The US embassy in Nicosia said it was “not aware of any such request” to the Cypriot authorities, the Cyprus Mail reported.

Another newspaper, Politis, reported that “the U.S. is exerting pressure on Nicosia, demanding Benon Sevan’s extradition.”

The Politis correspondent in New York added that “the tone of the representatives’ letter raises a lot of questions.”

The newspaper added that Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was very close relations to the Hellenic American lobby and in the recent elections last November was actively supported by the Greek Americans in an effort to balance the great influence exerted by Tom Lantos, who is supported by the influential lobby defending Turkish interests in Washington.

According to last month’s indictment the US has filed a warrant for the arrest of Sevan and Ephraim Nadler, the brother-in-law of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali for their alleged involvement in the kickbacks scandal, the Cyprus Mail reported.

Sevan is accused of receiving some $160,000. However according to his lawyers, the indictment is based only on two cash deposits, one of $5,000 in August 2001 and another of $1,200 in January 2002.

Nadler and Sevan have been charged with wire fraud, based on “their depriving the United Nations of its right to Sevan’s honest services”, bribery concerning an organisation (the UN) “that receives more than $10,000 annually from the federal government”, and conspiracy to commit these offences.

Nadler faces up to 112 years in jail and Sevan up to 50 years. Sevan insists he received the money from his late aunt in Nicosia over a number of years. He told the Cyprus Mail he had nothing to hide. He also said that when he returned to Cyprus some 18 months ago he was not aware that as a Cypriot citizen he could not be extradited to the US. “I came home because it’s my country,” he said.

Sevan said he too had not heard anything about the US authorities commencing extradition procedures against him.

The former government of Saddam Hussein’s raised $1.8 billion through kickbacks and surcharges on the sale of oil in the program. But Saddam is said to have earned $10 billion more from oil that he smuggled out of the country outside of the UN program, according to official reports.

Another Cypriot, Joseph Stephanides, had been accused by the Paul Volcker report of violating U.N. regulations on supplies and security and favouring certain companies for contracts in Iraq, charges that were later dismissed.

According to the Volcker report, Sevan’s selection of three companies to participate in the oil-for-food programme (Banque Nationale de Paris,

Saybolt Eastern Hemisphere BV

and Lloyd’s Register Inspection Limited) did not comply with international regulations for competitive tenders.

The report also accused Sevan of intervening during the years 1998-2001 so that the then-Iraqi government would chosse African Middle East Petropleum (AMEP) as a contractor.