CIVIL Registry and Migration Director Anny Shakalli yesterday confirmed she had officially requested police protection after she was attacked in her home last month.
Shakalli, who has been left traumatised by the experience, said the request was made in writing through her lawyer.
In her letter, she informs police that she had received threats on her life on three separate occasions, both on the telephone and in person. She also refers to having been attacked at her Nicosia home in Ayioi Omoloyites during the early hours of August 5 while she slept in her bed, and how her assailant threatened to return with a knife if she told anyone. Furthermore, when she returned from a three-week trip to China following the attack, she found an abusive message on her car window.
As well as requesting police protection, Shakalli said she had taken steps to protect her own home, including changing the locks, installing an alarm system and putting aluminium bars on her windows.
“I can’t live with the fear that someone can come in my room when I’m asleep,” she said.
At the time of her attack, senior officials had denied any knowledge of previous threats on her life.
Rumours also circulated that the incident had been a complete fabrication of the victim’s imagination. Others said she must have been attacked by a boyfriend because the assailant took nothing from her home.
Questions were also raised as to why someone would use a scarf to attack her, implying that it wasn’t the most effective weapon to inflict fear.
“How could police investigate a case when they were starting out with the assumption that she was lying? No one believed her,” a Justice Ministry source said.
The same source said he had information that Shakalli had been ‘advised’ to drop the case, something she was unwilling to do.
“Some people even went so far as to suggest that this whole incident would discredit her and that she’d lose her position,” he said.
Within days of the attack, Shakalli flew to Beijing to support her son who was part of the Cyprus Olympic Team. Twenty days later, she returned to find police had done little to get the ball rolling, prompting her to send the letter.
“I don’t know whether this was a chance attack or not, but they are using it to throw mud at me again,” Shakalli said.
“The fact that he stole nothing is more frightening. I can’t rule out that he was some crazy person who just happened to come into my house and did what he did. But the fact is he took nothing. Not my jewellery box and not money, which was in my purse in my bag. He was either crazy or was out to scare me. On his way out he said he would be back with a knife if I told the police.”
The Civil Registry and Migration director’s surprise outspokenness is an indication of her frustration with how her ordeal has been handled. She is an individual who has repeatedly refrained from comment over the years, despite having faced a barrage of criticisms regarding her professional decisions.
Shakalli has been extensively reported in the press for following the law to the letter and for unflinchingly signing immigrants’ deportation orders.
“I am a civil servant and as a civil servant I will apply the law,” she said. “If they want the legal system changed, then they have five years to do so.”
Her comment is a jibe at Sylikiotis, who, before resigning as minister under the previous government, had stripped her of her power to sign deportation orders because of certain decisions she had made which he was in disagreement with. The minister was reinstated under the new government.
Shakalli and Sylikiotis have a history of strife. Last year, the latter launched an independent enquiry into Shakalli’s handling of her department, including her failure to implement his circulars, delays in implementing an EU law on long-term residency for third country nationals, and reports that she showed up for work late. The outcome of the investigation is still pending, the minister said.
At the time of her attack, Interior Minister Neoklis Sylikiotis repeatedly maintained that it had been completely unrelated to her position and that she herself had said so. But the minister was yesterday adamant this information had been passed on to him by his Permanent Secretary, Lazaros Savvides, after speaking with Shakalli the day after her attack.
The Civil Registry and Migration director has now openly denied ever claiming that the attack and her job were unconnected.
Speaking to the Mail from Kiev, where he attended the 8th meeting of Migration Ministers from the 47 member states of the Council of Europe on September 4 and 5, Sylikiotis questioned why it had taken Shakalli an entire month to come out with a denial.
He said: “First, why has it taken her so long to deny it? Secondly, I only said what my permanent secretary told me. Someone is obviously lying here. Thirdly, where has the police investigation got to so far in the past month?”
Sylikiotis also called on Savvides to make a statement regarding what he had told him.
Both the permanent secretary and police chief were yesterday unavailable for comment.
Police sources said Shakalli’s letter demanding protection has prompted investigators to step up their investigations into her attack.
“They appear to be doing more now and have started combing the area where she lives.”
Shakalli was attacked during the early hours of August 5 while she was at home in bed. Her assailant got in through an open window and made his way to her bedroom where he tried to bind and gag her. Shakalli is believed to have fought back, receiving a blow to the face from the intruder. The man, thought to be of Asian decent, then ran off into an unknown direction. Nothing was stolen from the senior civil servant’s home.
