Russian woman jailed for entry through north

A RUSSIAN woman was jailed for three months yesterday on charges of entering the island illegally.

Pharmaceutical saleswoman Nina Nelioubina, 45, was arrested near a Nicosia National Guard army camp on Monday with a camera in her possession. When asked why she was in a restricted military area, she said she was looking for a church. Two rolls of film were confiscated from her but yielded no suspicious photographs.

She was given over to Kofinou police who discovered she had entered the island illegally three times through occupied Tymbou airport in the north. She said she had crossed without hindrance into the free areas at Vryssoules in the Dhekelia British Sovereign Base Area.

Appearing before Larnaca District court yesterday, she pleaded guilty to illegal entry of the island, but said the occupation authorities had told her “it was an open country” and visas “were not needed”.

“If there has been any kind of violation, then it is the British Authorities that have reason to bring us before a Bases court,” she said, adding: “I came here to rest. Why was I arrested?”

Despite appeals for clemency on account of the festive season, District Judge Nicos Santis sentenced her to three months’ imprisonment.

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.