Pantelides Transfered To Turkish Prison

Will Not Receive Warm Welcome Expected

Ankara (SPP) – Former Annapolis Mayor Michael Pantelides was transferred to a Turkish prison yesterday as part of an unprecedented deal reached between Cyprus and the Republic of Turkey.

Pantelides fled the United States earlier this year for the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyrpus after he was indicted under the Stolen Valor Act for falsely claiming to be a veteran while panhandling. Pantelides’s family disowned him after a DNA test revealed that he was not Greek, but rather Turkish.

While in the Turkish part of Cyprus, Pantelides was conscripted into the local military force. However, he apparently acted on his own when he attempted to blow up a Greek Cypriot gas rig in a suicide bombing with a speed boat. After his arrest, Pantelides was convicted of terror offenses and sentenced to 60 years by a Cypriot court.

Pantelides, who converted to Islam, requested to be transferred to a Turkish prison because he believed that he would be more comfortable serving his time along fellow Turks. His lawyers worked with the Cypriot authorities and the Turkish government to accomplish this. “It should give us all hope that even during these tense times people of good will can sit down and agree on something,” Pantelides’s head lawyer, Kosmosr Karahalios, told The Super Patriot Post.

Under the terms of the agreement, Pantelides is not eligible for pardon or parole. Other terms of the agreement have not been fully disclosed, but it is believed that Cyprus has agreed to pay Turkey the costs associated with his incarceration.

Pantelides should not expect any breaks from his Turkish jailers. Turkish President Erdoğan previously denounced Pantelides’s actions. In addition, Cypriot authorities informed the Turkish government that Pantelides is part of the outlaw Gulenist movement. Members of this organization have been rounded up and imprisoned since the failed coup against Erdogan in the summer of 2016. Pantelides was reportedly unaware of this and expected to be greeted as a hero.

Pantelides is being held in a high security “F-type Prison” prison in Ankara and will likely remain there until he finishes his sentence in January 2078. He will then be 94 years old. Luckily for Pantelides, Turkey has universal health care and a state pension system, so he won’t need to worry about saving money for his remaining years.