Caught in the trilateral diplomatic crossfire between Cyprus, Turkey, and Israel, the family of a Jewish Turkish-Israel citizen held in a Cypriot prison told The Jerusalem Post that they fear for his life after an ISIS inmate reportedly attempted to murder him and endured alleged inhumane conditions.
Real estate developer Afik Group director Shimon Aykut was arrested on June 10 in the Republic of Cyprus while he was on his way from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) to visit the State of Israel, where much of his family lives.
The regular visit was stopped short when Cypriot law enforcement seized Aykut for involvement in the purchase and development of property in the Turkish-occupied territory that Cyprus holds as the property of previously displaced Greek Cypriots.
The 74-year-old Aykut was taken to Nicosia Central Prison to await an indictment to be filed on September 9. Attorney Ron Berkman, who is one of the lawyers representing the family, said that they hoped to appeal to the EU Court of Justice once all legal efforts in Cyprus were exhausted — but Aykut’s family warn that the patriarch may not survive the lengthy proceedings.
Last Thursday, another prisoner approached Aykut with a phone card sharpened into a shiv. According to the family the man was an ISIS member, and he had discovered that Aykut was Jewish and Israeli. The alleged terrorist reportedly almost stabbed the elderly man, but was stopped by fellow prisoners. This time he was lucky, said Berkman, but the next time there might be no one there to intervene.
“It is shameful that the prison puts criminals with a history of terrorist membership in jail with prisoners with minor crimes. Where is their sense of responsibility?”” said Afik Group CEO and Aykut’s son Jack Afik. “This time it was ISIS, but I’m worried that it could next time be Greek nationalists.”
A May 2024 European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) report warned that the there was an increase of serious inter-prisoner violence at the Nicosia Central Prison , with insufficient safety measures and prison leaders forming informal hierarchies among the inmates.
As a Jew, Israeli, and Turk, the man alleged to have committed white collar crimes is in the crosshairs of different factions of violent extremists that may be housed in close proximity to him, Afik and Berkman explained. As a Turkish citizen and TRNC resident who doesn’t speak Greek, the family feared that Aykut could be attacked by Greek nationalists who have been roused by actors that seek to present him as a prime example of a “usurper” of “immovable property.”
While he may speak their language, Berkman said that with the tensions between Turkey and Israel rising with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s antagonistic positions on the October 7 War, Turkish prisoners may act against Aykut for being Israeli. Then there are other Islamist prisoners who may attempt to finish the job of their peer by murdering a Jew.
“All the time there are situations where they have to get him away from the Palestinians there,” Berkman told The Post on August 21. “He is constantly feeling that at any moment someone will stab him with a knife.”
Officials have done little to secure Aykut, according to the family, though Cypriot sources said that authorities were making efforts to ensure he was safely detained. Yet the prison’s danger to Aykut’s life is more than just its inmate population. The family asserts that he is being held in inhumane conditions unsuitable for any prisoner, yet alone an elderly man with health issues.
The 2024 CPT report warned that in May 2023 the prison was severely overcrowded, exceeding 300% of its originally designed inmate capacity, with some accommodations not fit for one person crammed with up to four, and smoking permitted in all communal spaces.
Prisoners lacked toilets to use at night, which inmates urinated in bottles in the “hot, packed cells.” Medication was distributed by prison officers instead of nurses. Based on the claims of Aykut’s family, these harsh conditions have persisted into his tenure at the facility.
Concerned daughter
Aykut’s daughter Sally said that he sleeps in a cell with four other prisoners. Berkman said that the standard was to provide 3 square meters to an inmate, but with a six meter squared cell he had half that. One night the cell grew so hot she claimed that he fainted.
Echoing the CPT report, Aykut has to urinate in a bottle, but according to his wife Racheli, a man of his advanced age has to do so more frequently most, requiring his roommates to donate their bottles to him.
According to a private doctor’s medical report, Aykut has a history of high blood pressure and takes medication for the issue. Berkman said that he had been provided with the wrong medication several times. Sally said that he normally sleeps with an oxygen mask, which the prison wouldn’t provide him, until they appealed to the Israeli embassy.
“Where are the conditions of a European country?” demanded Afik, who added that it was like the prison of a third world country. Sally said that he shouldn’t be held in prison in such a fashion when he hasn’t been sentenced let alone indicted.
Aykut keeps Kosher and is a vegetarian, and has been unable to secure proper nutrition. Sally said she had tried to get permission for deliveries of Kosher food from a local Chabad house.
“He doesn’t have any source of protein,” Sally said. “All he eats is plain rice and pasta; they don’t even give him cucumbers or tomatoes — all we’re asking here is for a tomato.”
Sally said that she was troubled to see that Aykut had lost almost 15 Kilos over two months. The family expressed great concern about Aykut’s health, describing it as rapidly deteriorating, though a August 8 letter from a private doctor who preformed a medical examination suggested his vital signs were normal, but suffered psychogenic symptoms and other minor problems that should be addressed, such as evaluation by a urologist for his enlarged prostate. Sally said that he had to be taken several times to the hospital. Afik was attempting to secure the evaluation, but by Tuesday had not succeeded in doing so.
Afik had hoped that his father, who has not yet even been indicted, could be released to house arrest. The family’s lawyers had proposed electronic surveillance or that Aykut be put under armed guard in a Cypriot Chabad house until his arraignment, but the ideas had been denied. Afik said that he was being treated “as if he were a murderer” with the insistence that he stay remanded at the overcrowded prison.
“Why is my father being held in such harsh conditions?” Demanded Afik.
The reason for Aykut’s allegedly strict treatment, according to Afik and Berkman, was that the family was caught in the geopolitical conflicts and machinations between Cyprus, Turkey, and Israel.
With the fifty year anniversary of the Turkish invasion marked in July and the possibility of the revival of peace talks, the Berkman contended that Aykut was being used as a card in the diplomatic games with the TRNC, while also using him as the “flagship” in their legal project to reassert private property claims for domestic political consumption.
While the scope of the Cyprus criminal code was expanded in 2006 to encompass any actions related to the “immovable property” of Greek Cypriots in TRNC, Berkman said that there had been almost no criminal proceedings based on the law in almost 15 years.
Proper proceedings would have been to take the matter of alleged infringement of Greek Cypriot property would be to take the matter before the Immovable Property Commission, which had been established in 2005 to remedy the claims of property owners without prejudice to the rights of Turkish Cypriots. Berkman said that there had been no attempts to lay claim to property being developed by the Afik Group through this mechanism.
“Jack Afik started his operations in 2006, after the establishment of the IPC, which means that all his activities are subject to the rules laid out by the European Court of Human Rights,” said Berkman. “We believe that the European Court will decide that this arrest is illegal.”
Berkman said that Aykut was only technically involved in the Afik Group, that his son was the true chief officer of the company and had only included his father on projects and put his name as the owner of properties out of respect for his father as the family patriarch. Arrest warrants for Afik and his brother had also been issued, which Berkman said was “ridiculous” because his brother worked in administration of a cafe.
The Afik Group had been targeted according to Berkman because of its success, but he and Afik also described how his background and current events made him vulnerable.
No help from Turkey
The Turkish government had “not lifted a finger” to help their citizens, allegedly because he was Jewish and also held Israeli citizenship, said Afik. In the wake of the Israel-Hamas War, Afik said that the Turkish government didn’t care to help such a citizen.
“On the other side there are people who have developed a strategy. Let’s suppose that they were now choosing, instead of my father, one of the other developers, who is Turkish — Not Israeli, Turkish and Muslim — This would push Turkey into a more aggressive [stance],” said Afik.
Berkman said that President Isaac Herzog and his office had attempted to speak on the issue with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, but the latter said that he could not interfere in the independent proceedings of the judicial system.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry, however, was accused by Afik of doing the “minimum” required by law. Berkman claimed that the Foreign Ministry that “Cyprus was helping Israel with threats from Hezbollah,” and “it seemed “there were more important interests in Cyprus than Jack Afik.” Afik said he believed Israeli inaction was also because of an “anti-Turkish agenda.”
With a gap in diplomatic protection, Berkman indicated that Aykut was perfect to be used as an example to threaten other real estate developers and foreign investors. Notably, a 25-year-old Israel was also remanded on August 15 for charges “related to money laundering, suspicious transactions in real estate and use of land registered to another person” according to the Cyprus Mail. A Turkish Cypriot faced property charges for the first time in January but was released on bail. Christodoulides had said in a January statement in response to that arrest that his government was not attempting to make property disputes a political issue and had nothing to do with possible negotiations.
“Illegality is illegality, and this effort to bring to justice all those involved in the usurpation of Greek Cypriot properties will not stop under any circumstances,” Christodoulides said in January.
Aykut’s family said that they were having difficulties coping with his arrest. His wife Racheli said that “I don’t sleep through the night,” because “all I think about is Shimon.” Sally also had trouble sleeping and taking medication to fall asleep. She had two children she had to care for, and hadn’t spent a single weekend with them since her father had been arrested — she flew every Friday so that she could visit him.
Afik said that the family “have no problem addressing the legal challenges” and would deal with the matter in court as need be, but that between inhumane prison conditions and threats from other prisoners, there was a pressing humanitarian problem.
“At the end of the day, we just want to save my father,” said Afik.