5,000 people charged in one year of smoking ban

ALMOST A year since the much-debated smoking ban came into effect, police charged over 5,000 people for smoking in closed public spaces, including hospitals and public buildings. “Across Cyprus, 44,669 checks have been carried out from which 5,334 on-the-spot fines were issued. Seventy-three criminal files were sent to court while the total number of people charged since the beginning of the year comes to 5,415,” said police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos.

“When a member of the police enters an establishment and sees a patron smoking, he’ll issue an on-the-spot fine to the owner and the person smoking. If however he enters an establishment and sees 10 patrons smoking, in such a case, a criminal file is opened against the owner who will go to court to face a bigger fine than the on-the-spot fine,” he said.

The worst offenders of the smoking ban were bar patrons, said Katsounotos.

“For example, charges in betting shops come to 859, for bars 1,477, music and dance clubs 444, coffeeshops and club houses 445, medical centres, clinics and hospitals four, tavernas and restaurants 161, discos 490, and four charges in public buildings.”



The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.