Supreme Court rejects appeal over access to devices in Cyprus espionage case
The court ruled that police did not unlawfully access a suspect’s private communications before obtaining a warrant to examine seized devices.
Paphos, Cyprus. The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a man facing espionage and other charges linked to the alleged surveillance of military installations in Cyprus. It ruled that police had not unlawfully accessed his private communications before obtaining a court warrant.
Investigation and charges
Rashad Sultanov, 44, a dual British and Azerbaijani national from Islington in north London, was initially arrested by Republic of Cyprus authorities in June last year.
The investigation began in 2025 after he was reportedly seen near the British military bases at Episkopi-Akrotiri, Paphos airport and the Andreas Papandreou airbase. According to the court decision, he was seen carrying a large camera and three smartphones, taking photographs, making telephone calls and writing notes by hand.
He was arrested under a court warrant on suspicion of several offences, including espionage and offences under the 2019 law on combating terrorism and protecting victims. A recent decision provided for the case to be tried in the UK rather than Cyprus because the intelligence collected mainly concerned the British military base.
Appeal over seized devices
During a search of the apartment where Sultanov was staying, police seized two mobile phones, three SIM cards, a laptop, a camera and a camera memory card, among other items.
The appeal concerned whether police had accessed private communications on those devices before receiving judicial authorisation. The ruling, issued on September 29, addressed a warrant granted in June 2025 that authorised police to access, examine and retrieve recorded private communications from the seized devices.
According to the ruling, investigators had extracted the devices’ contents forensically and stored copies in electronic folders before further analysis. Sultanov argued that the extraction itself amounted to access to private communications and that the later warrant was an attempt to legitimise unlawful access retrospectively.
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