THE SUPREME Court has rejected for a second time an appeal by a Larnaca model agency to set up a licensed brothel in Cyprus. The company ‘LD High Heels Model Agency Ltd’ applied to the Interior Ministry in March 2001 for a licence to run a brothel, requesting 20 work permits for female escorts.
The appellate court first rejected an appeal to bring in foreign women to work in the brothel last July and has now rejected another appeal by the agency on granting them a licence to run a brothel.
The agency made clear that its intention was to open a legitimate brothel using foreign employees that would cater to the needs of foreign businessmen and tourists. High Heels backed up their request for foreign employees by saying that research of the market concluded that no female Cypriots were available for the job. They also gave assurances that the running of the brothel would be of the highest standards.
Then Interior Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou replied to and rejected their application in May 2001. With regard to work permits, the minister pointed out that the law prohibited foreigners that prostitute or make profits from prostitution to stay in Cyprus. The Supreme Court later rejected an appeal by the agency to overturn the decision in July.
In a separate appeal, the agency’s lawyer argued that the decision not to grant a licence for a brothel should be invalidated because it limited the right to employment protected by Article 25 of the Constitution. The appellants also charged the ministry with lack of necessary research and insufficient justification in making the decision.
Supreme Court judge Minos Kronides acknowledged that article 25 did secure the right of choice and free employment, but noted that, at the same time, it allowed for laws which impose conditions and limitations for the protection of basic principles, including among others, the protection of public morals. In rejecting the appeal, the judge also said that operating organised prostitution was an illegal operation and, therefore, punishable as a criminal offence.
An Interior Ministry official confirmed yesterday that the bringing in of foreign workers for prostitution was illegal and claimed those that entered the country under false pretences and violated their employment contracts were either imprisoned or deported.
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.
