You will put Oz Karahan on trial? Seriously?
Source: in-cyprus.com
“AKEL calls on the Ministry of Justice and the Police to respond to the questions raised regarding the arrest of two Cypriot citizens during yesterday’s parade“, read AKEL’s statement last Wednesday.
It was referring, of course, to the case of George Tattis and Öz Karahan, who were arrested for attempting to raise a banner that read “Republic of Cyprus: The only solution”.
The reactions to the arrests were overwhelming. The Ecologists, EDEK, MPs from DIKO, journalists, and citizens on social media strongly protested, criticising the actions of the police.
All of these voices were ignored. As if the government did not hear these many voices.
But we had expected that AKEL’s intervention would have some effect. At the very least, out of respect for a major political party.
They can ignore the rest of us, that’s a known tactic, but to ignore AKEL? That’s more than just audacity.
We repeat their questions, hoping for an answer: “Which legal provisions prohibit the two citizens from displaying a banner, and how did their action constitute a threat to public order? How is the strictness of the police justified when, in cases of serious riots, they don’t even intervene? AKEL calls for immediate answers because this issue concerns the constitutionally enshrined right to freedom of expression”.
Will anyone answer, Mr. Hartsiotis? Will you answer, Mr. Arnaoutis?
We also want to know to whom the police officer sent the photo of the banner, and who gave the instruction to confiscate it?
Because that alone answers the police’s claims and the charges against the two detainees, that the problem wasn’t the banner but the supposed insults, resistance, and causing of concern.
If someone had to see the content of the banner to decide whether to allow it or not, it automatically politicises the police’s actions.
If the banner had read, “Long live Nikos Christodoulides,” would it have been allowed? If it had said, “BBF, the only solution,” would it have been permitted?
The fact that no one in the government feels the need to provide any explanation is worse. We are not living in times when every policeman did whatever he liked without being held accountable.
This behaviour is disgraceful. Both the arrest of two people, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, who wanted to express a political view, and the silence of the government.
Have they not realised that it’s the government that is being exposed here? Even when they say it’s a police matter and they won’t interfere, they are exposing themselves. But perhaps they don’t understand that.
It’s simple, though. The police put on their show, keeping two people handcuffed for hours, charging them in court, showing them who’s in charge, and punishing them because they “resisted,” just as police did in other eras. But it’s over now.
The rest concerns the government. If it truly wants to change the ’60s mentality and lead the country into a new era, it should already have given instructions not to let this case reach court.
Even the Attorney General can save the situation. It’s called “suspension of prosecution in the public interest,” and it’s one of the Attorney General’s discretionary powers.
What’s the public interest? Let me tell you. We have a Turkish Cypriot, Öz Karahan, an economist and a political figure, who ran in the European elections despite being vilified by Turkish Cypriot parties and urged by them not to be voted for.
He ran as a candidate on the Greens’ ticket because he believes in the Republic of Cyprus.
Later, despite threats from the occupied areas—where Arikli and his contractor brother demanded his arrest by the occupation regime—he publicly revealed, in a press conference with the Greens, a list of names and companies usurping Greek Cypriot properties in the north, putting his life at risk, and this is no joke.
And we are going to prosecute this man because, along with Greek Cypriots, on the day the Republic of Cyprus was celebrating, he wanted to raise a banner saying: “Republic of Cyprus: The only solution.”
Shame on us.
The original article: in-cyprus.com .
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