Sri Lankan claims police beating

By Charlie Charalambous

THE ATTORNEY-general is considering launching an independent inquiry into allegations that police mistreated a Sri Lankan couple after they had criticised the authorities on television.

Sri Lankan Chandra De Silva has accused the Cyprus police – via Interpol – of violently assaulting him and his wife before deporting him from the island.

Attorney-general Alecos Markides has asked to be briefed on the matter and has not ruled out an independent inquiry.

According to De Silva’s allegations, he was visited by eight armed policemen who beat him to pulp before taking him to Larnaca airport and putting him on the next plane home.

De Silva said the attack happened the day after he and his wife had appeared on a CyBC social affairs programme last week and had some unkind things to say about how they were treated as foreign workers.

The Sri Lankan’s lawyer, Michalis Vladimirou, said he had witnessed marks on his client’s back.

He also said that De Silva had since visited a hospital in his home country suffering from back pain.

De Silva further claims that police threatened to kill him if he remained in Cyprus.

His wife left the island earlier this week, claiming their employers had failed to pay them the agreed wage under contract.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.