ABDUCTED Greek Cypriot contractor Panicos Tsiakourmas yesterday met President Glafcos Clerides to thank the government for its efforts in having him released from prison in the north.
Speaking after the meeting, Tsiakourmas told reporters of his plans to file an application to the European Court of Human Rights against Turkey for his abduction last year.
Tsiakourmas, 39, was sentenced to six months jail in the north on trumped up drugs charges on April 25, but was freed later in the day after the ‘court’ decided he had already served his time. The Greek Cypriot contractor had been detained in the north since December 13 last year after being abducted from British bases territory early that morning on his way to pick up some Turkish Cypriot workers.
He was convicted and freed only hours after his mother died of a stroke doctors said was brought on by her son’s detention in the north.
Tsiakourmas said his family would undertake the cost of the application to the European Court, which must be submitted within six months of his abduction, by June 13.
Lawyer Nicos Pelides told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) that the whole issue was being handled by a committee of lawyers, including Kypros Chrysostomides and a British law firm. “Surely the application will be based on the abduction. This man was abducted and ill-treated by the occupation forces,” Pelides said. He said the application would be submitted by the end of the month.
Tsiakourmas said the British had done “everything they could, from what I understand”, to secure his release.
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.
