Police probe brutality claim

POLICE are investigating claims that a 19-year-old demonstrator was beaten senseless by riot police during a pro-Serb protest outside the US embassy in Nicosia on Saturday.

Constantinos Makriyiannis, from Kaimakli in Nicosia, was treated in hospital after an incident at the demonstration.

The Cyprus Human Rights Association and the Green party have both claimed the teenager was the victim of an unprovoked attack by truncheon-wielding riot police, detailed to control the protest against Nato air strikes on Yugoslavia.

These claims of police brutality have been echoed by Makriyiannis’s 18-year- old sister, Christiana, who was also at the protest. “We are investigating the circumstances under which he (Makriyiannis) was injured,” police spokesman Glafcos Xenos said yesterday.

“He was hurt, but this does not mean we did it,” Xenos said.

The Human Rights Association claims officers provoked the incident in which Makriyiannis was injured by laying into a group of protesters with their batons. Makriyiannis’s younger sister was among these protesters and he rushed to protect her, the association claimed. Officers than beat him on the back, sides and hand with their truncheons, knocking him out, the human rights group said.

About 300 demonstrators had gathered outside the embassy after an all-party pro-Serb rally in Eleftheria Square.

The Green party slammed police over the incident and their attitude to protests in general, saying the force was guilty of “acting as an implement for violent repression of actions by concerned citizens”.

Amnesty International has consistently expressed concern over reports of police brutality against detainees. Last October, rapid reaction squad (MMAD) officers were filmed beating African immigrants during a disturbance at a Larnaca detention centre.

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.