By Jean Christou
JUDGES must exercise caution when dealing with police statements in court, a Nicosia lawyer warned yesterday.
“Judges have to be wary of what police are saying. They don’t always present the real facts,” said Yiannis Erotokritou.
Erotokritou, who is also the Philippines Consul, was referring to the recent arrest of a Filipina housemaid for theft.
Lolita Bebibble, 32, was arrested on September 29 after her taxi-driver boyfriend Charalambos Georgiades accused her of stealing £200 from his pocket while he was out on a job.
Bebibble was taken to court the next day and remanded for three days after making a statement to police.
However, she was released on October 1 after Georgiades told police she had not stolen the money after all. Georgiades was then arrested and is under a four-day remand on suspicion of making false statements to police.
“When she was arrested she was persuaded by the police and the taxi driver that it was better to admit she had stolen the money because she would not be arrested and sent home to the Philippines,” Erotokritou said.
“She made the statement because she was afraid, like all the girls. But after she made the statement to police, they arrested her anyway.”
Erotokritou added Lolita had been pushed into making a statement even before an interpreter arrived at the police station.
When she spoke to the interpreter, she gave her side of the story, but police told her she could not change her statement at that stage, Erotokritou said.
“There is a question mark over the actions of the police,” he said.
Since her release, Lolita’s employer, a French diplomat, has refused to give her back her job. “She cannot find work because no one will have her now and she runs the risk of being sent back. The poor girl has lost her job and has been slandered,” he said.
“Who is going to answer for this? Not the police, who hurried through the enquiry to get a remand. This case was not well investigated and it was all put before a judge just to issue a remand. What was their hurry for the sake of £200?”
He added: “It’s about time the courts were more wary of the information put in front of them by the police. They should not believe whatever they say. How can we trust the police when we have reached the stage when they are the ones we need protection from?”
Erotokritou said he was seriously thinking of looking into the possibility of taking legal steps against Georgiades and the police.
In a separate incident, Erotokritou said another Filipina housemaid was in danger of being thrown out of Cyprus because her British employers allegedly refused to pay her medical expenses, for which they are clearly responsible under her contract.
Maria Carmelita Caisip, 35, came to Cyprus two years ago and was working for a British couple.
She claims a benign lump developed from a bruise on her left breast after the couple’s two-year old son accidentally kicked her last November while she was putting on his shoes.
The bruise has since developed into a lump which now has to be operated upon.
Caisip said her employers wanted her to go back to the Philippines to have the operation and then return to their employ. She feared not being allowed to return and left the house on September 26 to go to the Consul for advice, but did not return home.
A letter from her employers to the immigration department on September 29 said she had left the house without notice which was a “clear breach of contract”.
The letter said the employers were not willing to release Caisip to find a new job on the island. She says she cannot afford the operation in the Philippines with four children to support.
“She can’t go to the hospital here because she is not covered, even though the government receives millions in social insurance for these housemaids,” Erotokritou said.
He added that without a proper investigation as to why she had left her employment, Caisip would simply be thrown out.
But he added even when there was an investigation, the authorities always believed the employers.
“This exposes us as a society. What is the government offering to these foreigners? If we don’t want foreigners, don’t let them come. If we do, we have to respect their rights.”
