Elite police accused of partying with strippers

By Charlie Charalambous

FOURTEEN members of the elite police mobile rapid reaction unit (MMAD) are under investigation, accused of having partied with foreign strippers at an Ayia Napa cabaret.The men were supposed to be on covert exercises in Protaras last week when they allegedly decided to break curfew and let their hair down at a local cabaret.If they had hoped to keep the night out a closely guarded secret, the service Mercedes and Opel Vectra with ‘MMAD’ on the number plates may have given the game away.As fate would have it, the officers were spotted by plainclothes colleagues from the information gathering unit who make it their job to scour the cabarets for criminal types.They not only saw the vehicles, but apparently reported back to police HQ that the MMAD men had arrived at the cabaret accompanied by “foreign women”.As soon as the report was made to police command in Nicosia, the men were ordered back to their units and the training camp was disbanded.MMAD commander Yiannakis Philippou, reportedly outraged by the incident, immediately appointed an in-house investigator to begin taking statements.Philippou also wants to know if last Thursday’s outing was a one- off incident.”The issue is being investigated to see if the allegations are substantiated,” police spokesman Stelios Neophytou told the Cyprus Mailyesterday.He dismissed reports that the police had tried to cover up the incident. “If there is a case to answer, those responsible will end up in court,” Neophytou said.

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.