Police chief says relatives should be warned of prison release

POLICE Chief Iacovos Papacostas yesterday gave strong backing to the idea of setting up a mechanism to inform convicts’ families of their impending release.

“We can’t know when someone is going to be released or not, but we should come up with a way to tell families when a prisoner is being released,” he said.

Papacostas said he would speak to the Central Prisons warden about setting up such procedure.

“Someone, either us, the Social Welfare Services or the prisons, needs to inform the families. There are many crimes in which the family needs to be told that the prisoner is getting out. They can be told two days, five days or a week before. But they should be told,” he said.

Papacostas was speaking to the Cyprus Mail following recent reports that a 45-year-old Limassol man jailed for raping his underage stepdaughter had been released early and returned home without his wife having been told he was up for early release.

The case was reported in the local press. The 40-year-old convict’s wife had secured a temporary court order allowing her exclusive right to the family home but the 45-year-old had showed up anyway.

Regarding the specific case, Papacostas said there had been a huge misunderstanding over a property dispute and that the police had had its hands tied.

In the end, the woman was advised to get a permanent court order which the Attorney-general yesterday upheld.

“At 3pm, instructions were given to allow the woman exclusive right to the property,” Papacostas said.

The home was co-owned by both her and her husband.

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.