THERE WAS drama in a Nicosia court room yesterday after a woman fainted upon hearing a judge sentence her to two months imprisonment.
What the mother of four didn’t know, was that the judge was planning to suspend her sentence to 12 months.
The trial revolved around Paula Panayi who had been charged with illegally residing in a house in the refugee housing estate in the Nicosia suburb of Anthoupolis.
According to the 43-year-old housewife, she had moved into the uninhabited house because the state would only give her daughter housing in the area far away from where she lived.
The state housing department, however, had told her that the house that she wanted could not be given to her daughter, because that particular house could only be allotted to elderly people.
But wanting to be close to her daughter, who reportedly has health problems, Panayi took it upon herself to move into the vacant house down the street and gave the home she was living in to her daughter.
The whole ordeal was too much yesterday for Panayi and the woman collapsed unconscious on the floor when Judge Angelos David stated that the only fit punishment for the accused was that of two months imprisonment.
As Panayi fell to the floor and police officers and lawyers ran to her aid, her sister, who was observing the proceeding, began shouting and screaming hysterically while banging on the courtroom door and crying out, “Oh my God, no, no, please don’t send her to prison!”
The judge, who had told everyone involved to remain calm because he had no intention of jailing her in the first place, then adjourned proceedings before returning 20 minutes later when the defendant and her sister had calmed down.
Panayi lay unconscious on the floor for almost five minutes before coming to.
“The court has reviewed the matter requesting the need for a suspended sentence and has deemed the request of the defence worthy baring in mind the defendant’s need to support her family. The sentence is suspended for a period of 12 months.”
The woman was helped away from the courtroom by her sister, her lawyer and a police officer.
Panayi was officially arrested by police on December 8, 2005 to which she replied, “I accept the charges but in any case, the house department knows that I have moved into the house.”
According to a social welfare report, Panayi is currently married to disabled man, who is unable to work, but also has to look after four children – one of whom has cancer.
She is still living in the house.
