A SEX WORKER in Nicosia’s old town yesterday spoke out after a heated altercation with residents and police outside her place of work on Tuesday night.
“I’ve been in the business on this street for six years, and now all of a sudden the neighbours remember to get annoyed” the 49-year-old told the Cyprus Mail.
“I do not bother anyone and if they do not like my line of work, then they should help me get out of it, not persecute me.”
Nicosia’s “red light district” has been predominantly confined to three streets in the old town since the 1950s on Soutsou, Pentadaktylou and Tempon streets. The woman in question was working out of a house on Theseos Street, just off Pentadaktylou Street.
Residents became incensed on Tuesday night when they noticed that the red light outside the 49-year-old’s house was turned on, only few days after she was shut down by the police.
The sex worker has had run-ins with the authorities for several years, while her latest arrest occurred on November 9, for charges of pimping and disturbing the peace.
Police had shut down the rented house after a court order, while her case is set to be presented at Nicosia district court in April.
“This is now a family neighbourhood and this is no place for these sorts of activities to be taking place” said a neighbour.
The Ayios Kassianos and Chrysaliniotissa neighbourhoods have been the subject of extensive renovation works in recent years and the area has gradually been able to attract families and young professionals.
Residents complained that clients of the sex worker would often wander on the street in their underwear or completely naked, while some drunken clients would even urinate outside their doors.
“Several cars pass by every night, blowing their horns and shouting at the sex worker” said another neighbour.
Police officers were called at the scene and were able to avert an escalation of the tensions by advising the sex worker to remain in her house and to suspend her activities.
In an effort to break the demonstration, police officers started issuing parking tickets to the residents’ cars, which were parked in the middle of the street.
This did not go down well. After mediation by the Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou, who went to the scene, the sex worker agreed to shut down her house until today, by which day she was promised to be provided with another house in a non-residential area.
Mavrou said that the authorities had encountered serious difficulties in proving the pimping charges due to the vagueness of the current legislation on prostitution.
According to police, the legislation is unclear as to whether brothels can operate in residential areas or anywhere else, while the circumstances by which a person engages in paid sex are also vague.
Mavrou said that while she did not condone the specific practice in the particular residential area, the state, police and municipality should target hidden brothels that operate illegally and without control in apartment blocks and houses all around the city.
