Law enforcement agencies in Cyprus, Latvia and Portugal have made 15 arrests involving dozens of alleged marriages of convenience on the eastern Mediterranean island, police in Cyprus said on Wednesday.
The suspects arrested in Cyprus have been detained by court order until Feb. 7 © Mena Today
Law enforcement agencies in Cyprus, Latvia and Portugal have made 15 arrests involving dozens of alleged marriages of convenience on the eastern Mediterranean island, police in Cyprus said on Wednesday.
The operation by EU enforcement agency Europol headed by Cyprus police arrested 13 people in Cyprus on Jan. 29, and two arrests in Portugal and Latvia on the same day.
"Investigations revealed evidence against a number of people alleged to be involved in 133 sham marriages in Cyprus, involving women from Portugal and Latvia, and men from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh," Cyprus police said in a statement.
Authorities said they were investigating conspiracy to commit a crime, aiding and abetting illegal entry, forgery, fraudulent matrimony and forcing victims into fake marriages to get EU residency permits.
The suspects arrested in Cyprus have been detained by court order until Feb. 7, while Cypriot authorities have started an extradition process against the other two suspects in Latvia and Portugal, Cyprus police said.
Reporting By Michele Kambas
Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that a deal reached with Syria on the future of Moscow's military bases in the country would boost ties between the nations, and a Syrian source said some Russian forces would still be stationed there under the agreement.
Lebanon's parliament on Tuesday abolished the death penalty and replaced all existing death sentences with life imprisonment, the speaker's office said in a statement.
U.S. President Donald Trump accused Iran of being "devious negotiators" in an interview released late on Monday and described some of his current options in the war — "just bop along" and let Tehran fail economically or hit them "really, really hard."
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.