Women fined €750 for racial abuse in Larnaca car park row

Two Greek Cypriot women who racially insulted a Russian woman, Svetlana Zaitseva, in a Larnaca parking lot last year have been fined €750 each.

The women, aged 38 and 31, faced charges including harassment, causing immediate psychological harm and racism and xenophobia.

They were caught on film by Zaitseva who proceeded to upload the recording of the incident onto social media. Also captured on the video in the company of the two women, was another woman and two persons under the age of 18.

Many were shocked by the incident, which occurred on October 5, 2019, as a row over a parking related issue quickly escalated into verbal abuse with repeated racial insults directed at Zaitseva.

Zaitseva was called derogatory names and threatened with court action after she said she had recorded the women’s car allegedly hitting a parked car and trying to flee the scene when they thought no one was looking.

In total, three Greek Cypriot women reported Zaitseva for violating their personal data by publishing the video which lasted for about ten minutes.

The Russian woman later that month gave an interview to Politis. She was named as Svetlana Zaitseva, originally from St. Petersburg but who has been living in Limassol for the last 20 years and is the mother of three children.