New delay in reform of law on evidence

DISCUSSION of the controversial bill amending the island’s obsolete law on evidence at the Plenum was adjourned yesterday because the report from the House Legal Affairs Committee which has been considering the bill for months was not ready.

The bill had been on the agenda for discussion at the Plenum, but House president Demetris Christofias informed deputies that the report was not ready.

Police have repeatedly complained that the current law, in place since colonial times, is hampering the battle against crime and have urged parliament to amend it.

Former Attorney-general Alecos Markides has repeatedly criticised the House for not passing the amendment, which would have helped him prosecute hundreds of cases relating to the 1999 stock market bubble.

Only two days ago, Justice Minister Doros Theodorou told deputies that the police knew who the island’s drug kingpins were but could not prosecute them due to the law on evidence.

The chairman of the House Legal Affairs Committee Panayiotis Demetriou yesterday slammed Theodorou, describing his comments as “misleading and coarse”.

“I wish fighting the drug trade depended on changing the law on evidence,” Demetriou said.

“There are many ways and a lot of space for police to continue prosecuting drug traffickers with the powers given by the existing law.”

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.