JUSTICE Minister Ionas Nicolaou met the Attorney-general (AG) Costas Clerides yesterday to discuss the content of documents handed over by AKEL secretary general Andros Kyprianou on Friday which included alleged evidence that summer camps had been turned into armed military exercises by far-right groups.
Nicolaou told reporters he had shown the AG the documents and discussed how the matter needed to be investigated. The justice minister added that he would be handing over photographic material to the police so they could investigate the matter further.
Nicolaou gave assurances that the government was not going to show any tolerance towards any activities that would put the state’s safety at risk.
“Every situation needs to be investigated on the basis of justice and if the law has been broken then wrong-doers will be punished,” he said.
The Justice Minister said the photographs themselves did not prove any laws had been broken but needed to be investigated, which was why the police had been given the documents. Legal services will also look at the material to establish whether any laws have been broken and if there were any eye-witness statements that could result in charges being pressed, he added.
“What he have in front of us and what we are committed to is fully investigating the photographic material we have been given,” he said.
Asked by reporters whether an investigative team would be assembled to look into the far right group ELAM, Nicolaou said that the police and the justice ministry were not targeting anyone specifically.
“What we are currently looking at is investigating certain matters which arise from the photographs. There are people, objects, places and actions which need to be investigated. I will discuss them with the police, the chief of police and the deputy chief to see how best to proceed,” he concluded.
The issue of extremist organisations with possible links to neo-Nazi groups abroad arose following the murder last Wednesday in Athens allegedly by a member of the far right Golden Dawn (Chyrsi Avgi) party in Greece.
Golden Dawn is widely seen as the sister party of far right group ELAM in Cyprus, raising concerns that similar acts of violence could be repeated on the island if the issue of rising extremism in Greece, and possibly Cyprus, is not being adequately addressed.
ELAM is a registered party which fields its own candidates in elections, holds marches every so often against the employment of foreigners in Cyprus and has recently organised stalls offering free food and school equipment exclusively to people of Greek or Greek Cypriot origin.
In their response this week, ELAM said that the people in the photographs were not members of their party.
“They have no connection to our party and are clearly playing the well-known game Airsoft,” a statement on their website said.
Airsoft is a game in which participants eliminate opponents by hitting each other with spherical non-metallic pellets launched via replica firearms called Airsoft guns.
In their attempts to deflect attention, ELAM published a number of photographs from camps organised by AKEL’s youth movement EDON.
“We have our own evidence of AKEL camps where minors take part in military-style exercises where they are also indoctrinated,” the statement added.
