Cancer Patient Crosses from South to North Cyprus with Fake Passport and Flies to Turkey

A man appeared in court in Northern Cyprus after crossing the border from the southern part of the island using a fake passport and later flying to Turkey with the same document. During the hearing, the defendant claimed he had cancer and only one month left to live.

A police officer testified in court, stating that on Tuesday morning, around 10 a.m., the defendant presented a Gambian passport at Ercan Airport's border control before boarding a flight to Istanbul.

After showing the passport to a Turkish border officer, the document was confiscated, and the man was arrested and deported back to the TRNC.

Upon returning to the TRNC, the man admitted to the police that he had used the same fake passport to cross the border from the Republic of Cyprus to the north through the Pergamos (Beyarmudu) checkpoint on Tuesday morning at 8 a.m.

The suspect also disclosed that he had first arrived in the north in 2017 and that a few months ago, he illegally crossed the border into the Republic of Cyprus.

The police requested that the suspect be held in custody for two months pending trial. However, the defendant claimed he had recently been diagnosed with cancer and had only one month to live, pleading to be sent back to his home country.

The judge ruled that the man should be held in prison for no longer than one month until his trial and ordered a medical examination before he is transferred to prison.