PRISON authorities could be violating inmates’ human rights by making them cut their hair and shave, a human rights lawyer said yesterday, as a report claimed a convict was sent to isolation after refusing to shave his beard.
Daily newspaper Politis reported that Panayiotis Kafkaris, an inmate doing life for murder, had been sent to isolation after he refused to shave a beard he had had for 37 years.
Politis said Kafkaris was returned to his cell after promising to shave but was sent to isolation anew when an irate deputy prison governor Giorgos Tryfonides found out that the convict’s lawyer got involved.
Kafkaris’ lawyer Achilleas Demetriades has sent a letter to Tryfonides, the attorney-general and the Justice Ministry, asking why his client had been isolated.
Speaking on the radio, Demetriades said forcing inmates to cut their hair and shave could be a violation of their human rights.
Namely it could violate articles regarding humiliating treatment, right to privacy and freedom of expression.
“These are classic human rights and I think they are affected,” Demetriades said. “These people have, of course, committed offences they have been punished for but it does not mean their human rights are suspended.”
Regarding his client, Demetriades said this was strange behaviour “towards a convict whose behaviour had been exemplary so far and who has been subjected to punishment without us knowing the reasons and circumstances.”
Asked to comment on the report, Tryfonides accused Politis of continuously undermining his work and personality through reports characterised by lies and sarcastic comments.
He did say however that the prisoner had refused to carry out an order.
On the general matter of long hair and beards, Tryfonides said the administration had instructed inmates who did not comply with the institution’s rules of hygiene to take care of their hair and beards.
Beyond compliance with the prison rules, the order was given for reasons of prevention, in light of several recent cases of what is understood to be lice.
“The personnel is not prepared to carry home an infectious disease, which is the result of inmates’ unacceptable appearance,” Tryfonides said.
He said the majority of the Central Prison’s 700 inmates complied with the rules but there were some “who are despicable.”
Tryfonides wondered what would happen if 700 people decided not to shave and cut their hair and why should prison staff expose themselves to such dangers.
“What rights are being violated? Why don’t lawyers raise an issue about the army where soldiers have to be clean shaven and have their hair cropped short? For God’s sake.”
