Filenews 4 February 2023
A Central Prison inmate was found dead yesterday in the bathrooms of his wing with investigations turning to suicide. This is the third serious incident that has occurred in recent days in prisons after the removal of the management from its duties, following the development with the allegations against a senior police officer.
A 59-year-old British man who was on trial in prison after a court case was pending against him shortly after two o'clock in the afternoon was found dead. The 59-year-old was found dead in the bathrooms of wing 1B. Information from "F" from the prisons says that it is being examined whether he was in the place where he was found since 10 a.m. where he was last seen. There are also criticisms that when he was found he was not immediately moved to see if he was alive and resuscitated and was left in place until the coroners arrived at the scene.
As soon as the Briton was located, an alarm was immediately sounded in the prisons and the Deputy Director of Prisons, Assistant Police Director of Famagusta, Ioannis Kapnoullas, was informed about the incident, while members of the Police were also called to the scene for examinations. Also called for an autopsy were the forensic pathologists Angeliki Papetta and Orthodox Orthodox.
The death of the man occurred at a time when the prisons are essentially headless, since both the director Anna Aristotelous and the assistant director Athena Demetriou, are on sick leave, while they have requested their secondment to the Audit Office, following the decision of the Attorney General not to proceed with criminal prosecution against the police officer Michalis Katsounotos, whom the two prison officials had denounced. Pending a decision on whether or not the posting will be accepted, an attempted murder in prison against a 43-year-old Greek Cypriot man was committed last week, with an alleged inmate who grabbed him by the neck, causing him to lose consciousness.
Also, a few days ago the convict had escaped while he had been taken to the Hospital. In another incident the day before yesterday a convict who was taken to court, upon entering the prison and after a check, drugs were found in his mouth. It was the dangerous drug crystal ice which was seized. At the same time, according to the same information, another convict kept an open Facebook account while in his cell.
And all this is happening while this month the Committee against Torture of the Council of Europe (CPT) will visit the prisons for evaluation and will prepare a report with its findings. It is noted that yesterday there were 1025 convicts and inmates in prison, while their capacity is 425.
