By Elias Hazou
POLICE have seized computers belonging to a blogger who posted a spoof letter of resignation by Health Minister Philippos Patsalis, in which the latter was supposedly quitting because he was being stopped from authorising the use of medical marijuana.
It all began a few days after blogger Petros Evdokas, a member of the Friends of Cannabis group, posted the fake letter of resignation on the cyprus.indymedia.org website.
In the ‘letter’, the health minister ‘informed’ the President that he could no longer serve in the administration while thousands of people suffered because they were being denied marijuana treatment.
In a rather impassioned ‘missive’, Patsalis also ‘told’ the President that he had reneged on his election-campaign promise to allow the use of the drug for medicinal and pain-relief purposes.
The post was widely circulated on social media, with some Twitterati even thinking it was genuine.
This was despite the fact that Patsalis’ authentic letter of resignation had already been published all over the mainstream media. In the actual letter, Patsalis cited personal reasons for stepping down.
Patsalis subsequently complained to the police about the blog post. The police contacted the author, who refused to take it down, arguing it was a satirical post and that in any case it was a question of freedom of speech.
On being informed that the author was refusing to delete the post, Patsalis then lodged a formal complaint with the police, who proceeded to obtain a court order to search the blogger’s house and office on the grounds that he had circulated a forged document.
During the search, police seized two computers used by Evdokas.
The blogger was later called in to give a deposition, where he explained that his post – which he had signed off on – was intended as satire.
Evdokas in the meantime has appealed to the Supreme Court to have the search and seizure court order cancelled.
A colleague of Evdokas’ told Phileleftheros newspaper he surmises that the minister was bothered by the post precisely because he is not in favour of medical marijuana.
Asked to comment by the paper, police spokesman Andreas Angelides said only that authorities are obliged to investigate once a complaint is made in writing.
Angelides told Phileleftheros that it was “not entirely clear that the contents of the letter were satirical.”
When the story broke, the Cyprus Mail had contacted Patsalis, asking him whether, instead of lodging a complaint with police, he might have sued the blogger or the website.
Patsalis declined comment at the time.
The post is still online, at http://cyprus.indymedia.org/node/4997
As for the real reasons for Patsalis’ resignation, it is speculated that he quit because he was being stonewalled by the government. The cabinet decided to postpone approving the bill on hospital autonomy, which forms an integral part of the proposed national health system (NHS).
