TWO BRITONS yesterday began jail terms after admitting to involvement in what police described as the biggest ever ecstasy haul in Cyprus, while a third was released after the charges were dropped.
The suspects had faced a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for importing drugs with intent to sell, but Paul Kenneth Fogarty, 29, received a five-year sentence after pleading guilty on Monday to importation, possession and possession with intention to supply illegal drugs. Kirk Nicholson, 27, admitted to possession for personal use and was given an 18-month sentence.
After their confessions, Zoe Hazel Cox, 25, had the charges against her dropped and will shortly be returning to the UK to be reunited with her four-year-old daughter that she hasn’t seen for over six months. All three hail from Kent.
Following a postponement of the case in June, Fogarty and Nicholson were detained at Nicosia state prison. Cox was released on bail but ordered to remain in Cyprus. The case had been due to be heard next month, and this week’s developments are considered something of a surprise in light of the ‘zero-tolerance’ policy adopted on drugs in Cyprus.
The trio were arrested on May 24, two days after arriving on the island. Acting on a tip-off from Interpol, police placed the three under surveillance in the popular clubbing resort of Ayia Napa. The following day, officers armed with a search warrant found 1,603 Ecstasy pills in a carrier bag in the drawer of the apartment where they were staying.
Police described the bust as the biggest ever in Cyprus, an assertion challenged by one of the trio’s lawyers, Michalis Pelekanos.
“There have been bigger busts involving Greek Cypriots, but they just don’t get the same publicity as arrests involving foreigners,” he said.
At the first hearing, police told the court that Fogarty had allegedly admitted to being a user of cannabis, but said that he brought the drugs to deliver to another Englishman in Ayia Napa. Both Nicholson and Cox denied any involvement.
After posting the £7,000 (reduced from £15,000) set for bail, Cox was released in June but had to remain in Cyprus. But because her daughter was registered on her passport she was unable to see her because the authorities confiscated it as one of the conditions of bail.
Cox was set to stand trial in a separate case and from the outset Pelekanos maintained that the charge was a “tactical move” in order to keep her in Cyprus as a witness in the case against Fogarty and Nicholson.
On Fogarty, he said, “It’s a sentence within the proper limits of the law,” adding, “Nicholson pleaded guilty to possession of approximately 25 grams of cocaine for personal use.”
By European standards, the drugs problem on the island is relatively small, but it has grown significantly in recent years. Police figures show a steep increase in the number of people involved in drug offences.
During 1993, there were only 60 reported cases, while for the period January to May 2002, 174 cases have already been reported involving 225 people.
The British High Commission has become increasingly concerned at the number of British tourists that end up behind bars for drug possession. The hard line adopted by authorities prompted the High Commission to step up its efforts to warn Britons of the different attitude to drugs between the two countries.
Last year they produced a short film explaining the zero-tolerance policy in Cyprus, which is shown on tourist coaches ferrying visitors to their hotels and by reps to the groups under their supervision.
But the message does not appear to have got through. In August 2001, two single mothers from London became the first women jailed on the island for supplying drugs. Georgina Saunders, 27, was sentenced to two years after pleading guilty to importing with intention to supply 170 Ecstasy pills. Kizia Conquest, 22, received four months for possessing 20 tablets.
The week before Lee Mortimer, 22, and Paul Hartley, 25, from Burnley, were each sentenced to three years in prison after being caught with 184 Ecstasy tablets. Both had their sentences halved by the Court of Appeal after Pelekanos (the same lawyer defending Cox and Fogarty) successfully argued that a proportion of the drugs were for personal consumption and should be taken into account.
Pelekanos believes that outcome of their trial had a significant bearing on Monday’s verdicts. “This was the first case in our Supreme court in the case of importation, which bears a life sentence, that came together with a case for personal use. Some judges take the view that in the case of importation there cannot be any leniency despite personal use.”
Police have warned they will maintain the hard line on drugs in Cyprus despite recent calls for the downgrading of Ecstasy in Britain from class A to class B.
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.
