FORMER FINANCE minister Michalis Sarris was released on bail, paying €47,000 to a court in the north yesterday after spending seven days in detention in connection with alleged sexual offences.
The remand hearing which was due to start at 9.30am eventually got going at 4pm. Turkish Cypriot police, expediting the procedure with uncommon swiftness, produced a charge sheet for Sarris listing four charges: conspiracy to commit a felony, committing an act against the order of nature, and two incidents of indecent assault.
Someone committing an ‘unnatural act’ can be served with a maximum five-year sentence.
The court set bail at 120,000 Turkish Lira (around €47,000) with no restrictions on movement, allowing Sarris to return with friends and family to his home in the government-controlled areas. While the Turkish Cypriot authorities allowed his brother to take Sarris’ car with him, they insisted on keeping his mobile phone for an eighth day for further examination.
The 65-year-old former minister who denies all charges is due in court again on November 16, 2011, to face trial.
The north has the only legal system in Europe where homosexuality is still considered a criminal act.
Sarris was detained during a raid on a house in the occupied part of Nicosia on the evening of October 13, along with two other men aged 17 and 29. Initially, police claimed they had a confession from the 17-year-old that he had engaged in sexual acts with Sarris.
In the following days, Turkish Cypriot police detained another two males aged 14 and 16, suggesting they too were linked to the suspects in the first case, though no direct link to Sarris was ever floated.
On Monday, a doctor testified in court that Sarris and the 17-year-old had no sexual contact. The doctor also told the court that the 17-year-old had a scar on his forehead which did not exist during initial examination of him on Friday. This supported the 17-year-old’s allegation that police had extracted a confession out of him through physical force.
By Tuesday, all detainees bar Sarris claimed that they had been beaten by police, while the 17-year-old stated that police had beaten him once again on Monday night. The judge ruled that all five remain in custody for a further two days. They were led away in handcuffs past a waiting press.
According to one Turkish Cypriot source, when police raided the house on October 13, looking to implement the law against homosexuality, they had no idea who Sarris was.
Reports of the alleged involvement of minors then began doing the rounds mainly in the Turkish Cypriot press, ‘TRNC’ press office and among members of the Turkish Cypriot negotiating team. The reaction of the political leaderships on both sides of the divide remained unusually subdued.
Two charges finally levelled against Sarris relate only to the 17-year-old from the group of four others detained with him last week.
The two remaining charges involve two as yet unknown youths who are currently in detention for other offences.
According to a legal source, Sarris faces the charge of committing an unnatural act with the 17-year-old. For the same act, he is being charged with conspiracy to commit a felony.
Police in the north are also claiming two separate incidents of indecent assault involving two males. The first involves a 16-year-old Turkish national who was not brought to court by police during any of the remand hearings. This 16-year-old is believed to be serving a jail sentence for a drugs-related offence.
The second charge of indecent assault is connected to a 22-year-old Turkish national currently in detention for being in possession of a fake passport.
Meanwhile, from those initially detained with Sarris, the 17-year-old faces similar charges as does the 29-year-old who will also be charged with aiding and abetting Sarris and the 17-year-old to engage in an alleged offence.
The 14 and 16-year-olds arrested last Saturday who were also released yesterday face charges of crimes against nature and indecent assault. The charges do not relate to Sarris.
In a meeting today with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu yesterday, British Conservative MEP Marina Yannakoudakis protested against the continued ban on homosexuality in the north.
According to Yannakoudakis, she received assurances from Eroglu that the Turkish Cypriot community was seeking to repeal the ban. He promised to sign the repeal into law should it land on his desk.
“It’s not illegal to be gay anywhere else in Europe; it’s not illegal to be gay in Turkey. Chapter 154 of the penal code is an anachronism and needs to be repealed. All Cypriot adults should have the right to engage in consensual sex be it with the same or different gender,” she said.
“I hope that Dr Eroglu will keep the promise he made to me to rescind the ban and I will keep the pressure on him until he does,” she added.
