TWO POLITICAL asylum seekers yesterday told a Nicosia Court how police had threatened them they would “die in prison” if they didn’t sign a paper agreeing to be deported back to their country.
The accusation was raised by two Cameroon political asylum seekers during their first court appearance.
Sandjo Cyril, 26, and Hyppolyte Kouoi Zopor, 30, have been charged with four counts of illegal entry and illegal residence.
Both men have pleaded guilty to the charges, but Judge Alexandros Panayiotou refused to accept their guilty pleas after they stated that they had tried requesting political asylum.
“We were very scared at the police station,” said Zopor, speaking through a French interpreter. “I speak little English and my friend cannot speak any English at all. The policemen kept shouting at us, and they kept pushing my friend in the back all the time.
“At one point, they told us that if we didn’t sign a piece of paper saying that we wanted to be taken back to our country, then we would die in prison. So we both signed, not knowing what we signed.”
Earlier, the court had heard that the two men had paid $200 so that they could be smuggled into Europe on board a fishing vessel.
Without knowing where they were, they were dropped off at a coastline in Cyprus on January 27 and they both spent the night asleep on the streets.
The following day, they ended up in Nicosia, where they told the court they had met some Africans close to the Nicosia central bus station.
“We asked these Africans where we were, and they told us that we were in Cyprus,” said Zopor. “We then asked them if they could take us to immigration, which they did. But at the immigration office, all they did was take a picture, give us some kind of a form to fill and then told us to come back in a week.
“We then went back to the house of these Africans. As we were cooking some food in the kitchen, the police suddenly turned up at the door and arrested us. Even showing them our forms did nothing. We told them that we had no passports and wanted to do the right thing as immigrants, but they kept shouting at us”.
According to the indictment, Cyril is a tradesman and Zopor is a mechanic, who is a single father of two.
“I have two children and I want to make money for my children and family back home. I have some problems back home and cannot go back to my country,” Zopor told the court.
Judge Panayiotou yesterday ordered that the immigration services look into their story regarding their request for political asylum.
When asking whether the two men had any objections to remaining in remand until their trial on February 9, Zopor replied: “I prefer to remain in police custody; otherwise, I will be sleeping on the streets.”
