Turkish Cypriot authorities threatened on Friday to seize a media group in Cyprus belonging to fugitive businessman Asil Nadir over unpaid taxes.
Turkish Cypriot officials said Nadir, who fled Britain in 1993, owed millions in taxes to the breakaway statelet in north Cyprus. Press reports said sequestration papers would be served later on Friday unless 4.5 million euros were paid.
Asil Nadir is wanted by British authorities for the collapse of his Polly Peck business empire in Britain in the early 1990s. The Kibris media group in north Cyprus is thought to be his last remaining asset.
"I can confirm that the debts are real," said Hasan Ercakica, a spokesman for Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
"If he has the funds I guess he will pay. If not the group could be taken over and run by the government," he told Reuters.
Kibris editor-in-chief Resat Acar wrote in a column on Friday: "The aim of this action is to silence Kibris newspaper, to destroy our multi-party democracy and replace it with just one voice."
The Turkish Cypriot finance ministry has denied its move is politically motivated after the Kibris group, which had backed the Turkish Cypriot administration, appeared recently to switch political allegiances.
The Kibris group — the largest media group in northern Cyprus with a top circulation daily, a TV station and a radio station — seemed to switch support to an opposition party now leading polls in the run up to parliamentary elections scheduled on April 19.
"We are not going to interfere with what the Kibris Media Group broadcast, we only want the people's money," Finance Minister Ahmet Uzun said.
Asil Nadir fled to northern Cyprus from Britain in 1993 after Britain's Serious Fraud Office laid 66 charges against him relating to the collapse of his fruit-to-electronics Polly Peck International conglomerate. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Northern Cyprus is a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state only recognised by Turkey. Britain has no extradition treaty with the territory. Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup.
