Canadian Greek ‘tortured by Turks’, brother claims

A CANADIAN Greek Cypriot who strayed into the north on July 21 is being systematically tortured by his Turkish captors, his brother claimed yesterday.

But the UN — who yesterday visited 48-year-old Rogiros Georgiou with his brother Dafnis — reported that the conditions of Rogiros’s detention were acceptable.

“We are happy and all is satisfactory,” Unficyp spokeswoman Sarah Russell said.

“He is not sleeping on the floor and his cell is not damp,” Russell said, dismissing reports in the local press yesterday.

But Dafnis told a different story to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA). “My brother was left without food, water or cigarettes on a number of occasions, ” Dafnis said. He added that Rogiros was being tortured by the Turks who believed he was a spy for the Greek Cypriot side.

Russell said there was no basis for the torture claims. “There is no evidence of his being tortured,” the Unficyp spokeswoman said. “We took him cigarettes last week and he has food and water,” she added.

Dafnis claimed his brother had, just as Greek language papers claimed, been sleeping on the floor of a damp cell. But the Turks had moved him to another cell just before the UN visit, he said.

Rogiros, who lives at Kalo Chorio in the Limassol area, was apprehended by the Turkish soldiers a fortnight ago after he lost his way on the old Nicosia to Larnaca road and ended up at occupied Pyroi.

On Monday, he was again brought up before a ‘court’ in occupied Nicosia. He denied charges of entering a military area and is expected to reappear before the court on August 10, Russell said yesterday.

The Canadian High Commission, based in Damascus, told CNA yesterday it was doing all in its power to secure the release of Rogiros, who holds Canadian citizenship.

A total of nine Greek Cypriots and Greeks have strayed into the occupied areas this year, while 17 Turks and Turkish Cypriots have crossed the divide in the other direction.