Man in prison placed in isolation because he fears exposure to virus

A 65-year-old man held in the central prison in Nicosia pending an extradition process has been placed in isolation after complaining the facility had failed to take proper protection measures against the coronavirus, his lawyers said on Monday.

The man, who has been remanded on an EU arrest warrant issued by France, suffers from respiratory problems, something which is a problem in isolation as he is not allowed to exit the cell for fresh air, which can help his condition.

His lawyers said their client suffers from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease of the lungs, necessitating his removal from the jail.

He was arrested on August 22 in connection with fraud offences in France.

His lawyer in Cyprus, Andreas Vafeas, told the Cyprus Mail he will be sending a letter to the president and the attorney-general asking for his immediate release.

The lawyer will argue that his extradition is impossible at the time with the current outbreak of coronavirus, which saw Cyprus refuse entry to all commercial flights, and France order the isolation of its population March 16.

Vafeas said: “There is no reason to detain him, since he is not a convict in Cyprus.”

His lawyers in France said they also filed a request to have the EU arrest warrant lifted for their client, saying keeping him in the “unsanitary” prison in Nicosia is “disproportionate”.

In a letter to the Cyprus Mail, the detained man previously said: “Instead of implementing the government’s recommendations or preventive measures, the management applies the over-concentration of its prison population without any measures to either eradicate or break any spread [of the virus].”

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.