THE image of the police took a battering yesterday after Politis published pictures of policemen posing with two women waving handcuffs, guns and mace spray.
To add to the drama, the pictures were handed to the paper by an Afghan man who claimed that the same policemen arrested him for no reason, kept him at the station for three hours along with his Polish girlfriend and her friend (the two women in the pictures), for three hours, stripped searched him and then forced him to take them back to his apartment, where they knew he was staying with two Polish women.
The pictures – with the faces fudged out – were splashed on the front page of the newspaper yesterday.
Talking to Politis, the Afghan man, who has had the pictures for a year now, said that police officers pulled him over while he was driving, and, despite seeing all his papers and documents in order, ordered him to follow the police car back to the police station. He claims they then made him take his clothes off before cursing him and accusing him of being linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda. He also claimed that he was hit by officers after initially refusing to take off his clothes.
After three hours, two police officers then insisted on escorting him and the two Polish girls back to his apartment where he was staying. They then invited themselves in and began flirting with the women, he claims. The officers, who reportedly smelled of alcohol, then demanded that the man serve them a drink, which he refused saying he was a Muslim and did not drink alcohol.
The officers then allegedly demanded coffees and soft drinks and the women, in an attempt to avoid any trouble, accepted the advances of the officers and flirted back with them. It was then, according to Afghan man’s statements, that the pictures were taken.
Speaking to state radio yesterday, Justice Minister Doros Theodorou attempted to defend the force saying a few rotten apples shouldn’t spoil the whole barrel.
“An immediate investigation has been launched following the publication in the newspaper. I do agree with the perception that the picture and the article is bad for the image of the police but one has to keep in mind that there are around 5,000 to 6,000 people in the police force and out of that number we are bound to find some officers not up to scratch.”
Pegging back calls from reporters to look seriously into the matter, especially at a time when police officials have come under pressure after a reporter and cameraman were caught up in scuffles with police at a truck drivers’ blockade last week, Theodorou said: “I refuse to start convicting and condemning people without knowing who they are, what their names are or even what they look like.”
The report also brought out a stern reaction from the Action for Equality, Support and Anti-racism group on the island, KISA, who “condemned the racist arrest and attack on the Afghan man.”
