AG orders return of confiscated exhibition photos

Attorney-general Costas Clerides decided that no one would face charges in the case of the trans-activist photo exhibition, and had ordered police to return all photos held as evidence.
Two weeks ago police tore down a photo exhibition by activist artist Paola Reventioti – titled “Corrections”- and confiscated a number of photos picturing naked men. Police were acting on a complaint lodged by two citizens who had accidently seen the photos at the municipal market though they were supposed to be covered during the day. The complained they found the photos offensive.
Acting on an outdated law of 1963 – that prohibits public exhibition of lewd content- the police brought the head of Accept-LGBT Cyprus Costas Gavrielides to be questioned in the case, as the exhibition was organised by the NGO.
After examining the case, Clerides ruled that there was no case to be made against Gavrielides or the NGO.
Gavrielides told the Cyprus Mail that he had written to the AG and asked for all charges against him to be dropped, and demanding a public apology from the police.
Police spokesman Andreas Angelides told the Cyprus Mail that the photographs would be returned to their owner on officially receiving the AG’s recommendation.
The police were also slammed earlier this week by ombudsperson Eliza Savvidou, who called the law on lewd content “archaic” and an “assault on artistic expression.”

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.