POLICE finally contacted a 36-year-old Filipino woman for her formal statement OVER claims that she was sexually assaulted by her Nicosia employer after being kept a virtual prisoner for four months.
Just over 24 hours after first giving police her statement, she was alerted to report to the station.
“They contacted her and told her to go and give her statement at 7.30pm as they’d found a Filipino/Greek translator,” KISA president Doros Polycarpou told the Cyprus Mail.
The woman, known only as Angelina, said she was better received from police this time round, compared to her treatment on Wednesday afternoon, when the male officer barely paid any attention to her.
“She was accompanied by two KISA volunteers to the police station but they were told they weren’t allowed in with her while she was giving her statement,” Polycarpou said.
One of the women left, while the second one waited outside until 10.30pm when Angelina was finished, he said.
Polycarpou added that he raise with the Attorney-general the issue of allowing people to sit in with victims while they give their statements.
“We understand that when a defendant is giving a statement we cannot remain in the room with them. But when the procedure involves taking a statement from a victim in a case as serious as this, we feel that the victim needs someone by their side, not to speak or intervene, but for [emotional] support.
“Nevertheless, she said that she was okay and that a female officer had taken her statement this time. She seemed happy with the way things had been handled and her statement was written down.”
Polycarpou said all that remained now was for police to contact Angelina’s employer for a statement. In the meantime, the 36-year-old would be submitting a complaint with the Labour Office regarding her working conditions and sexual harassment in the workplace.
“The Labour Ministry’s inspectors of commercial relations are obliged to investigate incidences of sexual harassment in the workplace,” he said.
Although the Labour Office had initially informed KISA they did not handle such claims, he said the NGO would write to the Labour Minister to tell him to get the department to investigate the claim as was their responsibility.
“We also have an Ombudswoman’s report from another incident that says this is a Labour Office matter,” Polycarpou said.
“The fact that they have taken her statement is positive,” he added. “Now we have to see if they take a statement from her employer and, if it goes to court, what they will charge him with,” he said.
Polycarpou said the man could be charged under either the criminal code or civil code.
He said the former was pointless as the burden of proof lay with victim and was almost impossible to achieve.
“The police have to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that he is guilty, which is very difficult, whereas if he is charged with sexual harassment in the workplace, under the civil code, the burden of proof lies with the defendant and he has to prove he’s innocent.”
Even if the authorities do finally charge the employer with indecent assault under the criminal code, Polycarpou said KISA would file a civil suit of its own.
“We’re going to see what happens. In the meantime we have to find a new employer for her because she has no resources to live in Cyprus. The way the law stands, she is not eligible for state aid or social services, so without a job she has no money. She needs to find work immediately.”
Angelina claims she was virtually kept prisoner by her employers since her arrival in January. She was forced to clean a four-storey building including her employers’ living quarters and offices. She said she was never fed and only managed to eat lunchtime leftovers if she was lucky.
She managed to escape on Tuesday, the only day of the month she was allowed out to deposit her wages at the bank, after her employer had tried to sexually assault her on Sunday.
