5.  The applicant first visited Cyprus in 1991. He married a Cypriot national in 1993. As a result of this marriage he obtained Cypriot nationality in September 2000. Two years later the applicant divorced his wife and married his second wife, a Syrian national. He and the Syrian national divorced in 2005.
6.  On 10 March 2006 the Council of Ministers informed the applicant of its intention to deprive him of his Cypriot citizenship. Following a request by the applicant an investigative committee was set up. The applicant was also heard by the committee as part of the investigation.
7.  On 8 July 2007 the applicant married his third wife, a Cypriot national, in Syria.
8.  On 23 July 2007, on the basis of the report of the investigative committee, the Council of Ministers decided to deprive the applicant of his Cypriot nationality on public interest grounds, pursuant to section 113 of the Census Bureau Law of 2002 (see relevant domestic law and practice at paragraph 37 below). The report concluded that the applicant had been involved in cigarette trafficking and in the trafficking of illegal immigrants between Syria and Cyprus.
9.  The applicant filed a recourse with the Supreme Court (revisional jurisdiction) seeking the annulment of the Council of Minister’s decision (recourse no. 1226/07). This recourse was dismissed at first instance on 7 May 2008. On 2 June 2008 the applicant appealed against the Supreme Court’s decision (appeal no. 82/08). The appeal was dismissed by the plenary court on 12 May 2011: see paragraph 18 below.
10.  On 25 August 2010 deportation and detention orders were issued against the applicant. These were served on the applicant on 22 September 2010 while he was in hospital recovering from a road accident. He was detained the same day. The next day, at the applicant’s request, he was transferred to a private hospital and remained under police custody until his discharge from the hospital on 21 October 2010. After that he was detained at a police station in Pera Chorio Nisou (Nicosia District) and was transferred to the hospital on various occasions, where he remained in police custody.
11.  On 24 September 2010 the applicant filed a recourse with the Supreme Court (revisional jurisdiction) against the deportation and detention orders (recourse no. 1303/10). The same day, the applicant filed a request for a provisional order seeking the suspension of his deportation and an order for his release. These recourse proceedings were then adjourned pending the outcome of the appeal concerning the removal of his citizenship (appeal no. 82/08, see paragraph 9 above).
12.  On 30 September 2010, further to a complaint by the applicant’s wife to the Commissioner for Administration (the Ombudsman), the Ombudsman asked the Minister of Interior to suspend the applicant’s deportation because of his poor health and until she had completed an investigation. That investigation was completed on 27 October 2010 when the Ombudsman concluded that she did not have the authority to investigate the matter further as court proceedings were pending.
13.  On 16 December 2010, the applicant withdrew his application for suspension of his deportation because he had decided to leave Cyprus voluntarily. It appears that the applicant took this decision because he had been in detention for too long.
14.  On 20 December 2010, the applicant, whilst in detention, received a letter from the Civil Registry and Migration Department requesting payment, before his deportation, of EUR 30,356 for detention expenses as well as EUR 1,200 for the legal costs incurred in recourse no. 1226/07 (the appeal against removal of citizenship: see paragraph 9 above). The EUR 30,356 was broken down as follows: (i) EUR 20,675 for the salaries of the police officers who guarded him when he was in hospital; EUR 2,650 as expenses for his detention and maintenance at the police detention facilities for fifty-three days; and EUR 5,831 representing 25% of administrative fees. In his submissions to the Court, the applicant alleges that the authorities refused to allow him to leave Cyprus unless he paid the sums requested. He did not and claims that he thus remained in detention.
15.  On 31 December 2010, the applicant applied to the Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus (application no. 155/2010). He argued that after 20 December 2010 his detention had been illegally prolonged as it was made conditional upon payment of the detention expenses.
16.  On 29 January 2011 the applicant was deported to Syria.
17.  On 4 February 2011, in light of the applicant’s deportation, counsel for the applicant withdrew the habeas corpus application which had been made on 31 December 2010 (see paragraph 15 above).
18.  The Supreme Court dismissed the applicant’s appeal against the removal of his citizenship (appeal no. 82/08) on 12 May 2011. The applicant maintains that his representatives were notified of this judgment on 30 May 2011.
19.  On 28 November 2012, the applicant withdrew his recourse against the deportation and detention orders (recourse no. 1303/10).
20.  The applicant returned to Cyprus on 20 March 2012. He then married his third wife (that is, the woman he had already married in Syria in 2007: see paragraph 7 above).
21.  On 21 April 2012 the applicant applied for a residence permit. The Civil Registry and Migration Department refused this application on 11 June 2012, stating that it considered the applicant a threat to public order for the same reasons for which he had been deprived of Cypriot nationality and then deported on 29 January 2011. The applicant was asked to leave the country. The applicant lodged a recourse against this decision, which the Supreme Court rejected on 3 February 2015, finding that refusal of the residence permit was lawful and disclosed no breach of the Convention.
22.  On 24 October 2013, the Civil Registry and Migration Department commenced proceedings in the Nicosia District Court for payment of the detention expenses, which, as it considered, were still owed by the applicant (see paragraph 14 above). That claim was withdrawn on 31 July 2015.