A 32-YEAR-old former police collaborator turned whistleblower faces deportation after he was arrested last week on charges of being an illegal immigrant.
Jan Hazrat’s arrest follows his refusal to continue carrying out officers’ dirty work and after he filed charges of police corruption and brutality, which are still pending.
He claims he was employed by police for four years, saying he undertook jobs that ranged from extorting money from asylum seekers to helping to smuggle them into the Republic and involvement in beatings.
According to immigrant support group KISA, Hazrat first came to Cyprus in 2000 on a fake Pakistani passport. Due to family reasons, he left the country only to return on his genuine Afghan passport in 2001, when he requested political asylum.
“From 2001 to 2005, while he was a political asylum applicant, he was a police collaborator for the asylum and immigration police, Paphos Gate police, and the [Interior Ministry’s] asylum service,” KISA president Doros Polycarpou told the Sunday Mail.
However, Hazrat’s his duties did not just include acting as a translator and fingering illegal immigrants.
Instead, he alleges he was used to collect ‘service fees’ from other asylum seekers, which were then paid to police, participated in and was witness to police beatings of other immigrants, helped smuggle political asylum applicants from the north through Pyla, and was involved in a ring that squandered public funds from the social welfare services, including taking a cut from immigrants’ welfare cheques.
Only the social welfare services scam was investigated in 2004, but the case was closed after the prime suspect left the country and Hazrat was cleared of any involvement, Polycarpou said.
He added that Hazrat was able to name his collaborators, some of whom were high ranking officers in the force, and that his incarceration put his life at risk.
“He also knows that his accusations incriminate him, but he says he had no choice but to go along with what they wanted because they threatened not to extend his residency permit if he didn’t,” Polycarpou said.
In 2002, pending the examination of his asylum application, the 32-year-old Afghan met and married a Cypriot woman, who also held British nationality.
Two years later, he was arrested with three other immigrants by the same officers he collaborated with. Hazrat claims he had been approached by the three at the local mosque and that they had simply requested that he help find them a place to stay before they applied for asylum the following day.
“Perhaps the police thought he was helping people behind their back without giving them the necessary fee because he was either keeping it for himself or not charging them. Either way, he was arrested and beaten.”
Polycarpou said a doctor verified the Afghan’s injuries and KISA filed a complaint with the Attorney-general, calling for an independent criminal investigation.
“Instead of an independent investigation, the matter was investigated internally by police and in August they concluded that there appeared to have been no mistreatment involved in his handling,” he said.
In May 2005, Hazrat returned to KISA with the complaint that police had refused to renew his residency permit since August 2003. He said police would only do it if he agreed to continue being their collaborator, a request he turned down.
“After the beating he received, he didn’t want to have anything more to do with all that. He just wanted to get on with his life normally,” he said.
Soon after, his political asylum application was rejected.
Nevertheless as the husband of a Cypriot and EU national, KISA secured him a temporary residency visa, which when it expired, was renewed until February 2006. He also started the process of applying for naturalisation.
“During that time, he also filed a complaint against police regarding their failure to renew his temporary residency permit with the civil registry and migration department head, Anni Shakali. In February he also asked her to renew his application.”
Until last week, that application was still pending, Polycarpou said.
“Since February, he has been going to the civil registry and migration department at least twice a week to see what the delay is in extending his visa and not once have they told him he’s an illegal immigrant.”
Last Thursday, however, when he went to Nicosia’s CID offices to report a car theft, he was arrested with an outstanding arrest warrant dated October 2004 on charges of being an illegal immigrant.
Polycarpou said: “How could he have been wanted by police when he’s been going to the migration department twice a week for the past six months and is not in hiding? How come his temporary residency visa was extended twice in 2005? How was he allowed to return to Afghanistan in June 2005 and re-enter the country a month later? How come he
was issued a clean record by police in May 2005 when he applied for naturalisation?”
The human rights activist said when he put these questions to police, they admitted there must have been sort of mistake and that Hazrat would be held for 24 hours to investigate and in all likelihood be released.
“No charges were filed and then at 5pm on Friday Mrs Shakali issued an order for his deportation on the grounds that he’s an illegal immigrant.”
Polycarpou said it was only after the organisation’s intervention that the deportation order was put on hold until tomorrow.
“How can he be deported when he has received no answer on his naturalisation application? No answer on his temporary residency permit as a Cypriot and EU national’s husband? No answer regarding his police corruption claims? No answer regarding his complaint about the beating he received from police?”
Polycarpou said authorities had agreed to hold Hazrat until Monday to determine what findings the Attorney-general had made regarding his claims. He also pointed out Hazrat should have been denied temporary residency sooner if that was what Shakali had planned to do, so that the Afghan could have appealed the decision in court as was his legal right.
KISA suspect Hazrat is being punished for trying to extricate himself from the situation he got himself involved in and that it was no coincidence his asylum application was denied the same year he refused to continue working for police.
“We want an independent criminal investigator appointed to investigate the corruption and abuse charges against police. These are serious accusations and it’s not good enough having the police investigate it internally. They were willing to cover up the beating of two Cypriot boys, which only came out because of a videotape, so imagine how much more they’d cover up the beating of an immigrant.”
Polycarpou was referring to the December battering of two 27-year-old students by police. The incident was initially covered up until a secret video recording of the incident was leaked to the press. Eleven of the officers involved are now due to stand trial on charges ranging from torture to common assault.
