Asylum seeker locked up for short-lived anti-UN campaign

A PALESTINIAN asylum seeker was jailed by the Nicosia court for five days yesterday after a week-long campaign of defacing UN property around town.

Judge Lemonia Kaoutzani said that just because the Palestinian man had problems in his own country did not mean he had the right to create a ruckus in Cyprus.

According to prosecutor Mario Koutsoftis, the man initially pleaded not guilty and wanted to go to trial, he changed his mind when the court asked for £500 bail. He then pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five days.

The trouble began about a week ago when he had tried to enter the United Nations Protected Area (UNPA) in an apparent attempt to see someone from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) that deals with issues of asylum seekers.

The man had gone about it the wrong way by trying to push his way into the UNPA, where he was removed by soldiers manning the gate because he did not actually say what he wanted to see the UNHCR about.

He was warned off and told not to try to run past the guards again.

After that day he launched a campaign against the UN in Nicosia, accusing them of manhandling him and reportedly hurling stones, tomatoes and abuse at UN soldiers around the Green Line areas of the capital.

He was finally arrested on Tuesday when he was caught spray painting and defacing UN signs. The Palestinian man had apparently taken a leaf out of MEP Marios Matsakis` book and ensured that Sigma television was on hand to record what he was doing.

The footage was broadcast on Tuesday night. It showed the Palestinian man lying on the ground with a UN soldier standing over him attempting to persuade him to stand up and move along.
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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.