Top Cyprus prosecutor asks police to probe cash-for-passport scandal

FILE PHOTO: A person holds an image of a passport during a protest against corruption outside the Filoxenia Conference Center, currently hosting Cyprus parliament, in Nicosia, Cyprus October 14, 2020. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou

NICOSIA (Reuters) - The top prosecutor in Cyprus has asked police to investigate possible criminal offences in the running of a cash-for-passports scheme after an official probe suggested thousands of passports may have been wrongly issued to rich foreigners.

The east Mediterranean island awarded citizenship to 6,779 people between 2007 and 2020, the vast majority of them Russians, under the now discredited scheme.