Minister blames ‘sick police mentality’ on previous government

ROGUE officers have no place in the police force and should be rooted out as soon as possible, Justice Minister Doros Theodorou said yesterday.
Theodorou, whose ministry is responsible for the police, was commenting in the wake of a report released by the Ombudswoman detailing the brutal beatings of two youths by plainclothes officers last December.
Most of the officers belonged to MMAD (Mobile Rapid Reaction Unit), which usually performs the duties of a riot squad, such as in football games.
Unbeknownst to anyone, the brutal treatment of the youths was filmed by an anonymous witness, who handed the tape to the authorities, then, seeing that nothing was being done, passed it to Politis newspaper.
In her findings, Ombudswoman Iliana Nicolaou highlighted the fact that when questioned, all police officers gave an almost identical account – they claimed that the youths’ injuries were self-inflicted and did not admit to the assault.
But the explosive footage aired over and over again unmistakably shows the officers kicking, punching and kneeing the two handcuffed students as they lay helpless on the ground.
Marcos Papageorgiou and Yiannis Nicolaou, both 27, had been pulled over for a routine check. After being beaten, they were taken to the Lykavitos police station to be booked for drink driving and resisting arrest. To cover their tracks, the arresting officers filed a report, and one of them even asked for medical leave.
Meanwhile, an inquiry of sorts got underway, based exclusively on the account of the officers present at the incident and an “eyewitness”. However, it was stopped in its tracks once the video came out, necessitating a criminal investigation into the allegations of police brutality.
The involved officers repeated their version of the story to the Ombudswoman, unaware that in the meantime she had seen the recording. In this way, they have now also exposed themselves to perjury charges.
As public figures yesterday joined in condemning the events of December 20, the main theme became how policemen tended to cover each other’s backs whether they were in the wrong or not. By implication, the accused officers must have had the open or tacit backing of people higher up in the police hierarchy.
Justice Minister Doros Theodorou described this as alarming, and went a step further, remarking that people landing jobs in the force through political connections felt they were immune.
“It’s a sick mentality,” he said.
But it quickly emerged that Theodorou did not have anything concrete in mind and that he was speaking rather on an academic level, as he proceeded to blame the previous administration for nurturing nepotism and cronyism in the police force.
Speaking on state radio, the minister was taken to task for a comment he made some years ago, when several policemen were seriously injured during riots. Theodorou was furious at the time, telling news crews in a stern voice that “you can’t beat up the police”.
The CyBC journalist yesterday reminded Theodorou of this, asking the minister whether those statements may have fanaticised some in the force and encouraged them to assault civilians, safe in the knowledge that their superiors were behind them.
“No, I shall not retract that statement, I stand by it even now,” a defiant Theodorou said.
He declined to comment on rumours that one of the accused officers is the bodyguard of a senior government official.
“I don’t know. I have not been informed of this matter.”
Theodorou confirmed that recently some 20 MMAD agents were transferred out of their district, but denied this was a direct result of the beating incident.
He said the move was part of “restructuring” in the force that had been planned long ago.
According to Phileleftheros, MMAD was actually being downsized, although for the moment this did not affect the officers implicated in the contentious incident.
None of them have been suspended.
Under-Secretary to the President Christodoulos Pashardis pledged yesterday that the case would not degenerate into a whitewash, but cautioned against a trial by media.
“We should wait for the outcome of the criminal investigation before passing judgment.”
He elaborated: “I would not call this an isolated incident, but at the same time I wouldn’t say this is the norm.
“The police force is not an organisation of torturers,” he added.

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