Hasikos implies leniency in new army law

THE CABINET will examine a proposal by the Defence Ministry to assess the retroactive nature of the amended citizenship law, Defence Minister Socrates Hasikos said yesterday.

The amendment, approved by the House at the end of last year, caused widespread concern after it emerged that people born on or after August 16, 1960 to a Cypriot mother and foreign father would now have to serve in the National Guard.

Before the amendment was passed, only children born to a Cypriot father automatically became citizens and completed the compulsory military service.

But yesterday Hasikos said leniency would apply to certain cases and age would be taken into account as far exemption from military service is concerned.

However 18-year-old boys included in the amendment would not be exempt from the National Guard and would be obliged to join the rest of the summer conscripts this year, he said.

 

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