THE ATTORNEY-general has ordered the deportation of the victim and alleged perpetrator of rape, trafficking, sexual and work exploitation and unlawful detention.
Attorney-general Petros Clerides yesterday refused to speak to the Cyprus Mail about the decision to deport both Indian nationals – the suspect, 35, and the victim, 20, who ended up pregnant after a gang rape. Asked to provide any information on the case, Clerides replied: “I don’t remember and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said yesterday police had initially completed the file against the suspect and handed it over to Clerides who gave instructions to deport both the suspect and the victim.
According to the police press office, the police suggested in the file that the suspect be taken to the criminal court on charges of sexual exploitation of an adult, trafficking, labour exploitation, rape and the unlawful detention of a woman.
Earlier this month the 35-year-old Indian national was remanded in custody for six days in connection with the above charges.
According to reports, the victim, the 20-year-old Indian woman, eventually fell pregnant after being raped by three different people, including the alleged suspect. The woman gave birth last month, but refused to acknowledge the baby.
Last Thursday evening, immigration police went to the government shelter where she was being kept for safety to execute an order for her deportation, which was stopped last minute following the intervention of Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis.
The infant was under the care of the welfare services at the time and will remain so even if the mother does get deported.
Sylikiotis said yesterday he was notified that a victim of trafficking was being deported and so ordered the suspension of that order until further investigations could be carried out.
Police confirmed that the 35-year-old suspect was handed over to immigration for deportation though could not say whether he has left the country.
According to reports, the woman claimed that she came to Cyprus in December 2008 after which she was allegedly trafficked by the 35-year-old, taken from district to district under different employers and made to work, with the suspect, at least on one occasion in Pyrgos Tyllirias, taking all her wages.
In March 2010, the 35-year-old allegedly forced her into prostitution, after getting her to apply for asylum, and moved her into an isolated residence in the Larnaca district. It was then that she fell victim to a gang rape and ended up pregnant. She claimed that the suspect and two Bulgarian men raped her. The Bulgarians allegedly paid the suspect €100.
In February, the 35-year-old suspect allegedly abandoned the heavily pregnant woman on a street in Nicosia. She approached migrant support group KISA for help.
According to KISA, the woman was “terrified, confused and at a loss”. The NGO persuaded the 20-year-old to report her case to the Anti-Trafficking Unit of the police, which then recognised her as a victim of trafficking and placed her in the government shelter for trafficked victims.
KISA blasted the authorities for the “intimidating” act of entering the shelter to try and deport a victim of trafficking, despite the protection provided her by law.
The migrant support group expressed serious concern over the handling of the case, saying: “It is not acceptable, just because the traffickers and the victim are non-Cypriots, for the criminals to go unpunished and for the victims not to have their rights protected and secured”.
By taking the easy way out and deporting them, the Attorney-general’s Office was avoiding the need to employ state prosecutors in the trial that would have been held in the criminal court.
“The message conveyed to society with decisions like that is that we just want to get rid of the problem and not to actually address it effectively under our obligations as those are derived from national and international law,” said KISA.
