CYPRUS is looking to change the status of life imprisonment in order to come into line with European practices.
Speaking after a one-hour visit to the central prison, the chairman of the House Legal Affairs Committee Panayiotis Demetriou, Ombudswoman Eliana Nicolaou, and the head of the organisation for the protection of human rights (ETHNOPAD), Leda Koursoumba, stressed the need for urgent adjustment of the legislation concerning life sentences.
Cyprus is the only European country where life imprisonment means just that.
Nicolaou said she would soon be submitting a report on the correctional system as a whole: “I am ready to submit a report; I have specific views on the issue and I think this report could be a useful tool for further action in the hands of the House Legal Affairs Committee and the Justice Ministry”.
Concerning the re-introduction of lifers into society, Nicolaou said perceptions would change if society was informed correctly.
“Apart from that, the aspect of security of society is considered in each separate case examining the release of a convict,” Nicolaou said.
Demetriou said convicts were viewed as human beings and they behaved as human beings and that everyone realised that the current practice across Europe was based on a human approach.
“We, as Cyprus, cannot not follow, and this is why we have to see how to regulate the issue so that we open a window of hope to people who may have committed a repulsive mistake in the life, but exhibit the remorse, which gives them the right to hope,” Demetriou said.
He pointed out that in no European country except Cyprus did the law provide for life imprisonment to mean the convict should die in jail.
Common ground needed to be found to achieve a balance concerning the treatment of people who had hurt society and society’s reaction to them, Demetriou said.
The chairman of the House Legal Affairs Committee said he expected the Justice Ministry to present its proposal and, from then on, the committee would proceed to adjust the law as soon as possible to change the current regime.
Koursoumpa agreed that the issue needed to be adjusted in accordance to current European practices as life sentencing in Cyprus contravened the whole system of a correctional facility through which convicts should be punished but should also be given a chance to reform and return to society.
She noted that the proper mechanisms should be put in place to reassess each case on its own merits in order for the convict to re-enter society when ready.
Koursoumpa stressed that the views expressed were the outcome of careful study covering all aspects related to the matter.
“Society is in a position to accept the respect of the human rights of all these people, even those who have committed serious offences.”
