more Tsokos and others 2003

[nicoli86]

From: Nicanet.org June 9 2003

Topic 2: Special Advocate for the Environment Will Press

icaragua's Special Advocate for the Environment, Lisandro D'Leon Mairena, stated after a trip to the South Atlantic Autonomous Region that he will press for the annulment of the property titles to a number of the Pearl Cays off Nicaragua's east coast, which since 1999 have been sold and re-sold to people from a number of different countries. He said that the purchase and sale of the cays were in violation of the Constitution and of national laws. He explained: "We will demand the nullification of these titles. They are all null and void. Surprisingly the Civil Court Judge for the District of Bluefields ruled against us in the first instance even with all the arguments we presented. She has her reasons; nevertheless, it will be the Appeals Court that will have the last word."


D'Leon stated, "As I have said many times, what has happened here is the defrauding of the buyers. There are some powerful minds behind all this and they are the ones who have cheated all these people." Peter Martinez, lawyer and legal representative of several of the foreign "owners" of the Pearl Cays [including the Greek-American Peter Tsokos], challenged the government's Environmental Advocate, saying: "He is confusing a legal issue with an environmental issue. They lost the case in the first instance. That is the problem that they have."