THE INDEPENDENT committee set up to re-investigate the causes of death of 20-year-old Russian dancer Oxana Rantseva in 2001 is in the final stages of completing its mission, pending a visit to Russia.
One of the three criminal investigators appointed to re-examine Rantseva’s death, Evagoras Anastasiou, said that the team was awaiting a positive response from the Russian authorities before travelling to Moscow to take three statements.
The team consists of Anastasiou, a lawyer and member of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) and another lawyer, Andreas Papacharalambous, while third member, the former head of the PCA Yiannakis Agapiou, died last July.
According to Anastasiou, the investigating team sent a letter to the Russian authorities on July 2, 2010, requesting an interview with three people: Rantseva’s father, a friend of hers who also shared a flat with her in Cyprus, and the Russian pathologist who examined her body after her death.
The Russian authorities replied on August 26, requesting more information on the reasons for the visit and a list of questions prior to the interviews. A response was sent on October 13 with clarifications and a sample of questions that will be asked of the three Russian citizens.
“We are ready to go end of this month or early next month. Now, we await a response from the Russian authorities,” said Anastasiou.
The investigator said that over 30 statements have already been taken in Cyprus, with only two or three more left to take on the island. Once the three Russian statements are obtained, their work should wrap up within the next two to three months, he added.
The 20-year-old fell to her death in March 2001 while trying to escape from a fifth-floor Limassol flat owned by a cabaret-owner’s employee. The Russian doctor who performed an autopsy on the victim reportedly concluded that Rantseva died before her fall.
“We want to find out why he said that,” said Anastasiou.
He explained that the terms of their mandate was to investigate the causes of her death, her work and living conditions, the issue of trafficking and any other violations incurred by the police or others, like her possible illegal detention.
Rantseva’s father, Nikolai Rantsev, took Russia and Cyprus to the European Court of Human Rights for failing to carry out a sufficient investigation of the woman’s death.
The court found his claims valid, and in its ruling last January found Cyprus guilty of failing on multiple accounts to protect Rantseva. The ECHR condemned both countries for violating anti-slavery conventions and the human right to life, freedom and security.
Anti-trafficking organisations have argued that the Cyprus government only acknowledged that Cyprus was a destination for trafficking following the attention brought to the problem after Rantseva’s father brought the case before the ECHR. In its ruling, the court criticised Cyprus for its failure to develop a comprehensive immigration policy and uphold immigrant rights, bringing to light the need for an urgent re-examination of the trafficking policy and practices in general.
The case also marked a precedent in that it marked the first time the ECHR ruled that sex trafficking falls under antislavery conventions. The court issued specific directions on the responsibilities of national authorities in such cases.
Following the ruling, Cyprus overhauled its system of visas issued specifically for cabaret artistes, applying new rules to regulate the industry and make human trafficking harder.
