SCORES of people took to the streets yesterday to protest against a controversial Criminal Court decision to acquit ten police officers said to be the same officers caught on video violently beating two students in 2005.
“We feel vulnerable, we are hurting and we are ashamed for the sorry state of our institutions,” read the huge banner protesters held up outside the Nicosia District Court yesterday, as hundreds gathered to protest the acquittal.
The ten officers walked free on Thursday after the Nicosia court cleared them of all charges.
In its 158-page verdict, which took five hours to read out, the court said their guilt had not been established beyond a reasonable doubt, despite film footage of the beatings beamed across television sets for months. Moreover, the court deemed that the publicity surrounding the case may have prejudiced the course of justice.
Yesterday the protesters who gathered in Nicosia blew whistles in the hope that the din would prevent the court from going about its business. Even the most politically inactive of civilians felt the need to voice their pure outrage at the apparent cover up of the whole affair.
“If this is justice, it means there is no room left for injustice,” said pensioner Petros Leonidou, a Kaimakli resident who has never attended a demonstration before. “But I couldn’t take it; I couldn’t sit at home. It is the first time that I’ve ever come to something like this, it’s the first time. But I couldn’t remain inactive.”
Maria Iacovidou, another protestor, said: “It is the first time I have attended something like this and I truly hope the judges’ relatives suffer like these two students have suffered; a person close to them is beaten so they can understand. When the Cypriot student was beaten in Greece, the policeman got six months and everybody in Cyprus came out and condemned it. What are they going to say now?”
Also among the protesters was Yiannis Nicolaou, one of the two students who was beaten, along with relatives and friends of both students, their lawyers and nursing staff.
Marcos Papageorgiou, the second victim is currently finishing his studies abroad.
But according to his father, Dr Ioannis Papageorgiou, Marcos is enraged and devastated by the court decision, and is in two minds whether to ever return to Cyprus again.
“A case that is blatantly clear, which entered the homes and households of the entire of Cyprus and they saw the images of two boys being abused by a dozen policemen and which were recorded and everyone saw them, including the judges, for legalistic reasons they are acquitting the policemen,” said Papageorgiou. “This is a black page in the history of Cypriot justice, it is its waterloo, and if we continue like this, we are doomed.”
Pale and clearly dejected, Nicolaou said the judges had listened only to what they wanted to hear. “They didn’t see the full picture and they acquitted people who in my opinion are criminals,” he told the Cyprus Mail. “I feel some kind of demonstration is demanded because the public isn’t stupid. Everyone saw what I went through on the television and they know the truth. The only people who choose not to see it are the judges.”
One of the victim’s nurses, who attended the protest in uniform, said: “We know the case. We experienced it very closely and what has happened is unacceptable and if this democracy, then long live Junta.”
Penelope Papapetrou, who is one of Marcos Papageorgiou’s lawyers in his civil suit for the injuries he sustained, expressed her shock at the case’s outcome. “I believe it is a decision that wasn’t expected. Anyway, there are a number of issues that need to be examined in the decision so we can see what legal means we have from now on to move ahead with sidestepping or cancelling the court decision.”
Protestor Stelios Orphanides added: “I’m really ashamed by this justice system that institutionalises police brutality.”
Doros Ioannides, President of the Cyprus Bar Association, who was also present at the demo, tried to defend the judicial system.
“The Cyprus Bar Association has always avoided making statements when a decision is under appeal,” said Ioannides. “But this doesn’t mean that I will avoid giving my opinion on everything that has been said for the acquittal of the policeman. Statements and counterstatements, pleas and counterpleas will not help justice. Cyprus justice has helped this country and under no circumstances should we try to diminish its role.”
The court decision, which was reached unanimously by judges Yiasemis Yiasemi, Elena Demetriadou and Elena Efrem, will be appealed following orders by Attorney-general Petros Clerides.
But as Clerides has pointed out, along with a number of legal experts who have spoken out, the damage has already been done. Clerides, who stormed into the courtroom while the decision was being read out on Thursday in an attempt to stop proceedings – an attempt that was rejected – has made his opposition to the decision very clear, going as far as to say it had reinforced state terrorism.
The AG’s stance was strongly condemned by the Supreme Court yesterday, which issued an announcement to criticise Clerides’ “inappropriate statements” to the media and especially the CyBC.
“He should be better aware of the fact that if he disagrees with a decision, the legal means he has at his disposal is to appeal, and not attack the courts and justice,” said the announcement.
The Supreme Court said Clerides had lost his self control, but added that it didn’t wish to be drawn into a public dispute and was not planning to continue the matter.
Either way, the Chairman of the House Legal Affairs Committee, Ionas Nicolaou of DISY, yesterday announced the Law for Evidence needed to be amended and for this reason he would submit the matter for discussion at a parliamentary level.
“We don’t want people to be left unpunished due to legalistic reasons and because they have certain lawyers, who are clever and know how to handle the judicial system,” said Nicolaou.
The fact that the Cypriot public’s sense of justice has been irreversibly affected was yesterday mirrored on all newspapers’ front pages, with headlines such as “The justice that beats us”, “The video was a mirage” and “Justice is blind”.
Intensifying the situation further, Deputy Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou yesterday announced that the force would have “no choice” but to return the acquitted policemen to their posts, if the disciplinary investigation that concludes in a few days also decides there is no case.
Meanwhile, one of the policemen’s defence lawyers, Michalakis Kyprianou, said he was surprised by the reactions, adding that the prosecution failed to prove the authenticity of the videotape. He dropped some insinuations about the video’s producer, saying that if his name became public, people would be shocked when they found out who it was.
The Journalists Union also announced yesterday that it was saddened and disappointed that yet again, the media and journalists were being blamed and victimised. The media was blamed by the policemen’s defence team for publicising the video showing the violent beating. The Union’s head, Andreas Kannaouros, said he had had enough of the media being blamed while those guilty walked away unpunished.
