The family of a severely disabled, quadriplegic Greek woman is pleading with the government of Cyprus to release nearly €5 million awarded to the family in March by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a ruling that the Cypriot government has thus far refused to honor.

The family has appealed directly to Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and attorney general George L. Savvides of Cyprus to release the funds, which are needed for round-the-clock care of their daughter, who suffered irreversible brain damage at the age of three as the result of a botched medical procedure.

The ICSID tribunal has stated publicly that “the validity of and duty to comply with an award are clear.” Yet, the Cypriot government continues to drag its feet, in violation of its obligations under international law.

In July – four months after the ICSID ruling – Cyprus moved to have the family’s award annulled via the outlandish claim that the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) between Greece and Cyprus, which dates from the early 1990s, was “inoperative” during the investment dispute. In reality, the BIT was fully in effect.

The case is captioned Adamakopoulos and others v. Cyprus (ICSID Case No. ARB/15/49). Claimants are represented by Grant & Eisenhofer, along with Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check; Kyros Law; Fietta; and Chrysthia Papacleovoulou. The government of Cyprus is advised by Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle.

London-based Stephen Fietta KC, one of the lawyers representing the family, said that Cyprus’s annulment application against a family with demonstrated humanitarian needs “shows that Cyprus’ pathological hostility to investment arbitration, and thus to its treaty obligations to international investors, knows no bounds.”

The investment dispute was sparked by the Greek debt crisis and subsequent Cyprus banking collapse in 2012-13. Investors in Cyprus’s Laiki Bank and Bank of Cyprus alleged that their funds were illegally confiscated during the €10 billion bail-in of the Cypriot banking system. As opposed to a government- and taxpayer-funded bailout, a bail-in forces investors, depositors, and other stakeholders to provide funding to recapitalize a bank. ICSID registered the case in 2015.

Although Cyprus exempted many charities from the bail-in, it bluntly denied this family’s request for a humanitarian exemption, and then fought vigorously to avoid returning the much-needed funds to the family. The ICSID tribunal found that the conduct of the government of Cyprus failed to provide the family fair and equitable treatment, in violation of international law.

“Cyprus is refusing to swallow the bitter pill of losing its ICSID fight, and spitefully holding hostage an ill and permanently disabled young woman—all over a comparatively small amount of money in the grand scheme,” explained John Kyriakopoulos of Kyros Law in Athens, who is also representing the family.

“The Cypriot government’s technical and legalistic arguments have been routinely rejected, and this fruitless vindictiveness stains the honor and integrity of an otherwise respectable member of the EU,” added Grant & Eisenhofer senior counsel Alice Cho Lee. “We again urge President Christodoulides and his government to release the funds properly and legally awarded to the family, and so urgently needed.”

For more background on this case, please see here: https://icsid.worldbank.org/cases/case-database/case-detail?caseno=ARB/15/49.

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