A British citizen has been detained in Cyprus on charges of espionage and terror-related crimes, as reports of surveillance of major UK military facilities on the island emerged.
It had been tracking RAF Akrotiri, which is the UK’s strategic airbase for operations in the Middle East, and is said to have connections with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), local media reports indicate. The authorities apparently responded to intelligence that indicated the man was preparing to carry out a terrorist attack in the near future.
The man was arrested on Friday, and he showed up before a district court on Saturday. The court remanded him into custody for eight days pending investigations. Cypriot police have refused to provide further information, citing national security.
The suspect was said to have been living in a flat in Zakaki, Limassol, close to RAF Akrotiri. Witnesses claimed to have seen him near the base carrying a long-lens camera and three mobile phones. It is also reported that he had been watching the Andreas Papandreou airbase at Paphos from mid-April.
Although local media had referred to the suspect as Azerbaijani, the UK Foreign Office has confirmed that he is British. “We are aware of the arrest of a British man and are in touch with the authorities in Cyprus,” a Foreign Office spokesman said.
The arrest is timely as RAF security is already under the spotlight. In an unrelated incident, pro-Palestine activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire recently and sabotaged two planes. The base is key to Britain’s strategic air transport and refuelling, including flights to RAF Akrotiri.
The Cyprus investigation is still under way, and authorities have not officially identified the suspect or detailed charges as of yet.