Cypriot court hears closing arguments in Quinn case

JUDGE YIASIMIS Yiasemi of the District Court of Nicosia in Cyprus yesterday heard closing statements from counsel in the case of Anglo Irish Bank versus Quinn and reserved his ruling without specifying a date.

In the coming weeks, Judge Yiasemi has to decide whether to lift an injunction preventing Anglo from interfering in a €500 million Russian property empire belonging to Seán Quinn and his family.

The proceedings were brief, as the judge had limited the length of counsel statements, but produced a long-awaited breakthrough for Anglo: the release of “Cyprus Affidavit Two”, a massive and potentially explosive collection of documents containing material on the efforts of the Quinns to put out of reach of Anglo the Russian properties, including the €132 million Kustoff Tower in Moscow, the most valuable asset in the portfolio.

The Quinns have described the affidavit as “scandalous, irrelevant, as well as vexatious” and attempted to block or postpone its admission, while Anglo has argued that the material contained in it is essential to an understanding of the case.

Quinn counsel Sotiris Sotiriou of Limassol put forth technical objections to the admission of the affidavit, including a complaint about the fact that certain material had not been translated from English into Greek, one of Cyprus’s official languages.

Speaking for Anglo, Katia Kakloulli of the Chrysses Demetriades law firm in Limassol, rejected his points.

Nicos Georgiades, noting Anglo’s argument for opening the affidavit, referred to an English legal precedent stipulating that if one party to a dispute withholds or provides false or misleading material, an injunction should be lifted.

Speaking to The Irish Times after the session, Mr Georgiades stated, “When the court issued the order [blocking the admission of the affidavit] the position was unclear. Now the court knows the whole story and [the complete] presentation of the bank.”

The case continues.