Court rejects video evidence of prison riot

A LARNACA court yesterday refused to view television footage of a cellblock disturbance that a senior policeman is charged with violently suppressing.

The court ruled that a copy of the original footage of rapid response unit (MMAD) officers attacking boat people who rioted at the old Famagusta police station on October 23 last year was not admissible prosecution evidence.

MMAD chief Charalambos Mavros, 49, is charged with negligently and deliberately allowing his officers to use excessive force in controlling the Arab and African detainees. He denies the charges and has publicly defended his actions.

Yesterday was the first day of Mavros’ trial before the Larnaca District court.

A Press and Information Office cameraman told the court that the original footage from TV cameras at the scene had been copied because it could not, in its original format, be shown on an ordinary video.

The court ruled that such copied footage was not acceptable as evidence.

The original pictures, shown widely on news bulletins at the time of the disturbance, captured MMAD officers kicking prostrate rioters and weighing into them with batons.

The 48 boat people, who had been held as illegal immigrants since their rescue off a Syrian fishing boat found drifting off Cyprus some four months earlier, had set fire to mattresses and blankets in their cells to demand asylum.

The MMAD officers tossed tear-gas into the protesters’ cells, forcing them out into the courtyard of the old police station before moving in on them.

Mavros’ trial continues next Thursday, when the court will hear testimony from the first of a number of boat people involved in the incident.

Cameramen and reporters who witnessed the disturbance are also set to testify during the hearing.