‘Vice ring is being investigated objectively’

A HIGH-RANKING police officer arrested in connection with a prostitution ring last week is being treated like any other suspect, Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou said yesterday.

“We are saddened that there is a member of police involved,” Papageorgiou told reporters. “Everyone is innocent until proven guilty but the fact that he is a member of the police does not affect us at all; the particular case is investigated with full objectivity and determination.”

The officer, a senior at the Aliens and Immigration Unit, was last week remanded in custody for seven days along with a 72-year-old pensioner.

The officer is suspected of being the pimp while his friend, the 72-year-old, is the husband of a 43-year-old Chinese woman referred to as Nancy who was remanded for eight days earlier that week.

She is suspected of helping the officer to run the ring.

Papageorgiou said the force would review the investigators’ work to determine whether there are reasons to request an extension of their detention.

During the remand hearing, the court heard that women arrested in the past were released after paying a bribe to the police suspect, some were illicitly allowed re-entry into Cyprus for a price, while one woman spoke of being forced to have sex with the officer.

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.