THE reappearance yesterday of abducted 57-year-old George Ellinas in Paphos and its possible link to illegal money-lending yesterday resulted in a wave of calls for harsher laws and more prosecutions to clamp down on the phenomenon.
EDEK leader Yiannakis Omirou said a meeting under President Demetris Christofias, including senior politicians, was imperative so that police efforts to carry out their role and mission in stamping out what had become an increasingly bigger problem could be reinforced.
He said the meeting would address gambling, loan sharks and other related criminal activities such as middle-of-the-night beatings of individuals who were unable to repay their debts to lenders.
“The criminal activity of the underworld is out of control. We had the murder of a policeman, now we’ve had a kidnapping. Now we’ve established we have an extensive, organised usury ring. We are talking about ferocious amounts [of money] and hear about night time beatings of ordinary individuals by different gangs who have borrowed from money-lenders and are not in a position to repay the money,” said Omirou.
The EDEK leader said more also needed to be done to ensure illegal betting operations were not operating out of licensed premises under the guise of legal betting. Omirou said there were hundreds of illegal fruit machines that had been installed throughout the island and that a thorough examination of who used, operated and imported them was necessary.
Joining in the argument was Paphos Mayor Savvas Vergas who called for stronger action from police and the Justice Ministry. The mayor said more officers were needed to bolster the local department to help stop an increasingly dangerous problem.
Vergas, who has spoken out a number of times in the past about the plethora of gambling outlets – many of them illegal – available in Paphos, said he was concerned by recent events in the town, which have brought the seedy underbelly of society to the fore.
He said: “I will meet with Justice Minister Loucas Louca and the new Chief of Police Michalis Papageorghiou this week and discuss specific measures to stamp out evil at its root.”
Vergas underlined that not enough police patrols and checks were carried out at specific trouble spots in Paphos.
“Illegal casinos are in operation although the police are aware of them,” he said.
House Legal Affairs Committee Chairman Ionas Nicolaou said the phenomenon of online gambling needed to be dealt with by prosecution authorities more systematically. He said usury was not unheard of in Cyprus and that there was a law banning it. However he admitted that perhaps the legislation needed modernising, although under no circumstances could money lending by private individuals be abolished.
“What leads to usury is gambling and casinos,” he said.
He said online gambling and illegal betting in Cyprus had led many to financial ruin and even driven some to suicide.
“What we are waiting for from the government and the Finance Minister had promised was that soon we would have legislation which would essentially regulate the issue of online gambling and would essentially be a tool police could use to prosecute illegal online gambling,” the DISY deputy said.
