Syrian jailed for illegal entry

A SYRIAN man was jailed for five months yesterday for entering and residing illegally on the island.

Adae Al Shara, who was also charged with public brawling, was told by the judge that he was obliged to show respect to the laws of the country that he was in.

Al Shara, who has one child with a Cypriot woman, was only discovered to have been living illegally on the island after he got into a fight with Savvas Laou from Lakatamia and was arrested.

According to State Prosecutor Margarita Avraamidou, Al Shara entered the island through the Famagusta port and simply crossed into the south through one of the checkpoints.

Police investigators had told the court that Laou and Al Shara had come to blows over money, with the Syrian claiming Laou owed him money for various jobs he was doing for him.

Sentencing Al Shara yesterday, Judge Alexandros Panayiotou said: “The courts are being cluttered on a daily basis with cases of illegal entry and illegal residence on the island by foreigners looking for a better future. Cyprus is, of course, a hospitable nation and it therefore expects from the foreigners wanting to live on the island to show respect for the laws of the land.”

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.