in-cyprus 26 March 2020 - Bouli Hadjioannou
Sending a clear message that it was serious about enforcing stay at home rules, the Council of Ministers on Thursday adopted two proposals that it is fast tracking for approval by parliament tomorrow.
The first authorises police to impose a €150 on the spot fine for those breaking the decree limiting movement to the absolute necessary.
The second amends the penalties in the law on containing infections being used as the basis for the various decrees issued by the Health Ministry.
They currently stand at 450 pounds and the amendment will raise this to €3000. The offence also carries a jail term.
Both are subject to the approval of the House of Representatives.
Justice Minister Yiorgos Savvides said that police will retain the right to charge those who break the stay at home decree rather than issuing a fine.
Even though courts are currently dealing only with urgent cases, he clarified that these offences will go to court immediately.
The minister also gave the latest update on the number of checks carried out since 6 pm on March 24 when the stay at home decree came into force until 7 am today.
He said there have been 6822 checks, with 445 pedestrians and drivers booked.
Since March 11 when a decree was issued closing a number of business establishments and imposing restrictions on the number of people that can be indoors at the same time, he said police had carried out 20,510 checks and 46 businesses and other establishments were booked whereas as from March 14 when checks were stepped up there were 14,917 checks and 34 were booked.
This includes churches, bars, kiosks, a shooting range and a barbers.
