Cyprus deported on Thursday a couple who had been under arrest since February 26 and were considered a present threat to the Republic, after authorities did not file a terrorism case against them in criminal court.
The pair, a 28-year-old Azerbaijani man and a 27-year-old Estonian woman, had been in Cyprus since February 23 and were arrested three days later on suspicion of acting against Israeli interests on the island.
They were held for 14 days under separate five-day and eight-day detention orders. On Thursday, however, police immigration officers took them to Larnaca airport, where they boarded a flight to a European city with Estonia as their final destination.
The development indicates that police did not gather evidence that would justify filing a case against them before the Criminal Court.
Questions remain over the case, however, including claims said to have been made by the couple’s lawyers and the positions put forward by police.
More specifically, the 28-year-old Azerbaijani man and the 27-year-old Estonian woman were said to have reported to police on February 25 that two people were following them. It was also claimed that they had called the emergency number 112. A day later, however, they were arrested.
At the same time, according to police positions presented in the case, confidential information given to authorities said the 28-year-old was an Iranian agent directed by the Revolutionary Guards. He was said to have travelled to Iran twice in 2025, while police surveillance indicated that he was photographing buildings linked to Israeli interests in Paphos. He had travelled with the 27-year-old to Paphos, Limassol and Larnaca.
Police information also said that while staying in Paphos, Limassol and Larnaca, the two took a large number of photographs of specific sites from different angles. Investigators were examining whether they sent the images to a contact abroad.
In addition, classified Cyprus police information linked the 28-year-old to a specific organiser who had recruited other people to carry out terrorist acts in support of Iranian interests. He was said to have had the same handler as a 44-year-old Azerbaijani man with a British passport who was arrested in Cyprus on June 21, 2025, and who is accused of terrorism and espionage. As Phileleftheros reported on November 6 last year, British law enforcement authorities had submitted a formal request to the Republic of Cyprus for cooperation in the case involving the 44-year-old.
