A week later, we came back to London for a hearing on bail," Mrs Nadir said. While Nur Nadir gets criticized by Asil Nadir's family who believe that she was influential in Asil's decision to return to London, Nur Nadir underlined that she was not influential in Asil's decision to appear in court in England.
Asil's efforts began a long time before me. As such, it was impossible for me to influence his decision," Nur Nadir stated. Along with large areas of fruit orchards, Nadir was also handed a fruit-and-vegetable packaging plant at Kato Zodia, near Morphou, which had belonged to a Greek Cypriot fruit growers' co-operative, Sedigep.
Mr Champas said, in his opinion: "Asil Nadir is an illegal merchant who has been exploiting our properties for many years and gaining money at our expense. PPI, he said, owned thousands of citrus plantations in the Morphou area. In he took over PPI, and its early success was built on fruit juice.
Many people in the Greek Cypriot community, both on the island and in the UK, believe the leg-up Nadir was given by Mr Denktash played a considerable part in his rise.
Costas Apostolides, an economist and journalist with the Cyprus Mail, was the first to write about Nadir's property deals in the s. He told the BBC: "He received various properties for virtually nothing. Initially it was citrus-growing areas and later hotels and a large complex of flats in Kyrenia.
Mr Apostolides said Nadir had been given large tracts of land at Alacati Alagadi and Voukalida Bafra , both of which had beautiful beaches and "fantastic potential" for tourist development.
By the late s, he was the doyen of entrepreneurs and was raising millions from shareholders. But Mr Apostolides said: "This land belonged to displaced people. They have not cost [the Turks] anything and you are then giving them to somebody else to exploit.
Mr Denktash, his political ally, sheltered him after he jumped bail in and fled back to the island, but publicly broke with him the following year. Mr Denktash called for his arrest on charges of tax evasion but no action was taken. Eleni Meleagrou, a lawyer specialising in reclaiming Greek Cypriot property in the north, said she herself had discovered that an area of orange groves which belonged to her father had ended up in Nadir's hands.
Ms Meleagrou, the former wife of writer Christopher Hitchens, said: "A plot in Kapouti, near Morphou, had been leased by the TRNC to Asil Nadir to use as a plant producing orange juice from the orange groves in the area.
The maximum penalty for theft is seven years in jail. Nadir was arrested in , but slipped out of the country before he could be brought to trial, flying in a private plane to northern Cyprus which has no extradition treaty with Britain.
He flew back to London in , vowing to clear his name. During the seven-month trial, Nadir admitted taking money from Polly Peck, but said he had always balanced the books by paying cash into other accounts. However, the Old Bailey jury found him guilty of 10 out of 13 theft charges. Choose your subscription.
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