by turkkan » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:19 pm
On the bright side, at least a few of you greeks got an orgasm for a few days.
Was Cherie sent a dud cheque?
By Nathan Morley
Linda Orams: ‘This is a load rubbish’
A NEWSPAPER in the north of Cyprus has claimed that a cheque paid to Cherie Blair QC by the northern Cypriot administration for her work defending the Linda and David Orams has bounced.
Star Kibris reports that Blair and her partner Bitu Bhalla, who defended the Orams in the lawsuit filed by refugee Meletis Apostolides, have not received the amount of £270,000 sent by the northern Cyprus "government” in return of their services.
However, the paper does claim that £150,000 was sent to Blair, but alleged that the cheques were proved to be dud when deposited.
Linda and David Orams are engaged in a long-running legal battle with Meletios Apostolides, a Greek Cypriot who owns the land their home stands on.
Cherie Blair’s law firm Matrix, was hired by the Orams’ Turkish Cypriot lawyer Hassan Vahib, who is also understood to be one of the parties paying the couple’s legal costs.
Yesterday a spokeswoman for Matrix refused to be drawn on the claims, telling the Cyprus Mail that the company were not aware of the reports and would not give any details regarding barrister’s financial arrangements.
“Matrix barristers are self-employed professional people who work under our umbrella, we are not prepared to discuss this matter,” she said.
In an Interview with the Cyprus Mail last night, Linda Orams brushed off the reports as ‘pure rumour’ but could not confirm or deny that the Blair cheque was a dud.
“I think this is rubbish frankly, we have been subjected to rumours since day one, and there are different stories all the time. This is a very political case and it always has been political, so I’m not surprised to hear this kind of nonsense,” she said.
It still remains unclear who footed the Orams legal bill, but recent British newspaper reports suggest that the Turkish government agreed to pay part of the fee, other contributions to the case were also rumoured to be coming directly from the Turkish Cypriot administration.
“We have sponsors, as far as I know its businessmen and others with an interest in northern Cyprus, we don’t know their names, obviously many of them wish to remain anonymous,” Orams told the Cyprus Mail.
The Orams, a retired couple from Hove in Sussex, got a favourable ruling in 2006 from the UK High Court, which said they could keep their villa in the north.
The UK High Court decision, which caused outrage in Cyprus, came after the Nicosia District Court had ruled that the Orams should demolish their house, return the land and pay rent for the time they lived there.
Meletios Apostolides contested the UK ruling and an appeal was sent to the European Court of justice in Luxembourg, which will be heard in mid April.
The late President Tassos Papadouplos, who was in office at the time of the case, condemned Cherie Blair for agreeing to defend the couple in what was seen as one of the most sensitive issues on the island.
He said Blair was behaving provocatively by agreeing to represent the pair in the high-profile case.
"It is difficult to separate her professional capacity from being the wife of the British prime minister," he said.
With elections due in northern Cyprus, there is speculation a journalist at the Star Kibris newspaper was ‘tipped off’ about the cheque by an opposition politician to cause a stir in what is being seen as an increasing volatile election campaign.
News of the ‘dud cheque’ has been a hot topic of discussion on local internet forums, with on Greek Cypriot local commenting, “If the cheque bounced, it means there is a God after all,” another posting simply read, “Sounds like divine retribution to me”.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009
