Foreign students from the north set for deportation

TWO IRANIANS and four Kazakhs arrested at the Ledra Palace checkpoint last week as they tried to cross from the occupied areas were scheduled to be deported last night.

The four are studying at a university in the north. Reports said that had asked the UN whether they were allowed to cross to the south and had been told to ask Cyprus police. When they came over to do so, they were promptly arrested for entering the Republic of Cyprus from an illegal port.
The students appeared before a court on Monday and were fined a total of £1,900.

A source told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the fines of the two Iranians had been paid by the embassy of Iran in Cyprus and that the students were to be deported at around 7pm last night.

The arrest and detention of the four students was met with anger by Turkish Republican Party leader Mehmet Ali Talat, who compared President Tassos Papadopoulos Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.

“The court’s decision to impose a fine and to deport the students during their studies is Papadopoulos’ contribution to Mr Denktash,” he said.

“The ports and airports in the north are still part of this island,” Talat added.
But Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said the arrest and detention of the four students had been carried out according to the law, adding that neither the President nor the government could intervene with the work of the judiciary authority.

Chrysostomides said Talat’s comments were unjustified.

“I don’t know what Mr Talat is trying to achieve with comments like that,” he said.

“I hope that there is no one who is suggesting that we should legalise the illegal ports of Famagusta and Kyrenia or the illegal airports in Tymbou and Lefkoniko.”

DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades said Talat’s comments were unfortunate, but added that the police could have handled the matter in a better way.
“If there was any comparison of the President with Denktash then that is unfortunate,” he said.

“I don’t think that the President of a country should deal with giving orders to the police,” he said.

“The students could have been treated differently so that we will not projecting an image of trying to stop the so-called free movement.
“But on the other hand the police were doing their job.”

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.