Police officers demonstrate to support colleague

ABOUT 100 police association (SAK) members protested yesterday in a show of support for their suspended colleague and representative Andreas Symeou amid criticism by the police spokesman that they were missing the mark.

“Today’s protest is at odds with its goal,” police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said.

The protesters carried banners against “gagging SAK’s unionist on police wages” and in favour of the “supporter of police rights.”

Symeou himself said last week he was being persecuted for being a unionist, an accusation repeatedly denied by police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos as well as from police chief Michalis Papageorgiou.

Symeou is currently facing criminal charges related to the “inhuman and degrading treatment” of individuals during trouble at a football match last October.

He is also facing disciplinary procedures for alleged inappropriate behaviour towards the chief of police when he raised the topic of the charges during a Limassol headquarters inspection.

“The disciplinary and criminal action against this particular officer has absolutely nothing to do with the fact he’s a unionist,” Katsounotos said yesterday.

No amount of protest could have an effect on the proceedings against Symeou, Katsounotos said calling people “to differentiate between belonging to a union and being a police member.”

SAK has been a vocal critic of Papageorgiou’s plans to reorganise the timetable for traffic police from a 12-hour shift to an eight-hour one.

Symeou called the timetable “inhuman” and staged protests asking also for greater police expense allowances when the scheme was introduced in July.

SAK became a fully fledged union as part of civil servants’ union PASYDY after winning an open battle with Papageorgiou on that issue.

Yesterday’s protest took place in Limassol outside Yermasoyia police station, where Symeou is head.

“[Symeou] is a unionist, one of the finest officers this part of Cyprus has seen and we demand he returns to duty immediately,” Ayios Tychonas muchtar Pampos Ioannou said in support of the protest.

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