Citing CyBc, a Greek news portal, Cyprus Mail reported that Archbishop Chrysostomos II said a developer, who had purchased church land in Ayia Napa, had asked the church to promote the citizenship bid by Low, who is better known as Jho Low.

Chrysostomos said the developer gave the church three names to lobby for citizenship and that he was unaware as to whom the citizenship was granted to.

He also said that when it came to such matters, it was the state authorities who had the final say although the church could promote certain individuals.

“It is done for the good of Cyprus. It is not up to us [the church] if the citizenship will be given, we are just asking,” he was quoted as saying.

Chrysostomos went on to reveal that Low, who is at the centre of the 1MDB scandal, had donated money to the theological school when he visited Cyprus. According to CyBC, the sum came up to €300,000.

The Politis newspaper previously reported that Chrysostomos sent at least two letters to the country’s then interior minister asking for Low’s naturalisation as the two were in talks for investment on church property.

Meanwhile, former interior minister Socratis Hasikos, who was also implicated in the expose by the Politis newspaper, also denied the charge.

On Twitter, Hasikos said the claim was a “monstrous lie”.

“If indeed the archbishop were asking for the issuance of a passport for someone, and within two days the passport were issued, it would have been a monstrous scandal,” Cyprus Mail quoted him as saying.

According to Hasikos, Low had filed his naturalisation papers through an audit firm two-and-half-months before September and the time frame within which he secured his passport “was not out of the ordinary”.