Filenews 24 February 2022 - byMichalis Hadjivasilis
The issue of the supervision of indictees in their home with an electronic ankleband, an issue that has been pending since 2021, has been brought back to the House.
A bill had been tabled in the Committee on Legal Affairs, but the Justice Minister announced in a letter to the House that she intends to table a bill in the coming weeks. Information from "F" indicates that the ministry of justice does not want a concession of general authority to the Courts to order the confinement of suspects in their homes, instead of being held in central prisons, but to set exceptions for specific offences.
Recently, there have been dismissals of sub-defendants that provoked reactions, with the result that the Attorney General proceeded with an appeal and succeeded in overturning the court's decision and ensuring their detention. Specifically, a Court had released a person accused of a series of cases of child sexual abuse and on appeal by the Attorney General he was detained until his trial. Also recently a court had released two Romanians accused of trafficking an 18-year-old and other serious offences, resulting in an appeal against the decision which was overturned.
On the issue of the confinement of anklebands, the former minister Emily Yiolitis also disagreed. The Ministry of Justice wants to extend the institution of restricting electronic surveillance to those inmates, not only to prisoners, in order to decongest prisons, but to exclude people convicted of murder, attempted murder, serious cases of drug trafficking, rape, violence against women and sexual abuse.
As the President of the Commission, Nikos Tornaritis, mentioned yesterday, the adoption of the multi-bill concerning prisons is necessary to end as soon as possible, as Cyprus is called upon to comply with decisions of the Court of Human Rights, as well as with the opinions of the Council of Europe.
According to Mr Tornaritis, important issues emerged during the debate, on which the members of the Commission asked for answers and clarifications. "The top of these issues," he said, "concerns the ankleband for the suspects and the right that the Court should have to decide whether a suspect can be detained at home with electronic surveillance."
He added that the justice ministry was asked to submit its final recommendations within the next two weeks in order to proceed with the elaboration of the bill.
