Arrest of woman in Paphos on Monday to be looked into

Police chief Zacharias Chrysostomou has enquired about the arrest of a 60-year-old woman who had asked to talk to President Nicos Anastasiades during his visit to Paphos on Monday, after she refused to leave the Town Hall, prior to his arrival, police spokesman Andreas Angelides said on Tuesday.

Before she was arrested the woman reportedly complained to bystanders about her dire financial situation and that she did not even have food on her table. She was forcibly removed by police officers and was charged in writing for public insult and attack against a police officer and was released.

Angelides said that chief Chrysostomou has asked for a full report on the incident to decide how the issue will be handled.

After her release, the woman, who is unemployed and her son is a conscript, had told the Cyprus News Agency that she had not intended to cause any problems, but that she wanted to talk to the president and hand him two letters.

The announcement followed criticism against the police and the way the woman was treated.

The Green party, in an announcement, condemned the excessive force of violence police used against the woman, who they said was put in handcuffs and was dragged on the ground “as if she was a common criminal” and was shut up in a cell until late afternoon.

“What threat did a 60-year-old woman pose to the President and his ministers?” the announcement said.
It added that she wanted to make the President aware of her problem and thereby of other people who face similar problems.

“We expect that the charges against her are dropped and that she receives the much desired aid,” it concluded.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.