Filenews 17 May 2024
After a heated debate, the Plenary of the Parliament passed by a majority a law criminalizing false testimony to the Independent Authority for the Investigation of Allegations and Complaints against the Police. It also provides for an increase in the penalty for the offence of intimidating a person intending to lodge a complaint.
The relevant bill was submitted by DISY MP Nikos Georgiou and was voted by 18 votes in favour and 15 against.
Explaining the proposal, Georgiou said that it fills a legislative gap in the Independent Authority and safeguards the dignity of police officers, against whom many false allegations are made, since it increases the prison sentence and the fine. He noted that of the 1100 cases that came to the Authority, more than 50% were rejected and spoke of criminal elements, who take revenge on police officers who solved their illegalities and even false complaints by illegal immigrants to extend their stay. He also said that complaints are being made so that until the crime is investigated, the prosecution is suspended and then time-barred. As he said, this has the effect of ossifying and denervating the police force and hitting honest police officers, who are under the microscope of interrogations at all times.
He also noted that no honest citizen whose human rights have been violated and wants to make a complaint has reason to worry, but those who consider the police a punching bag should be worried. He also said that his proposal has the consent of all institutional actors.
ELAM MP Sotiris Ioannou said that blatant allegations against police officers have been rejected and are made either to delay cases or with revenge. He added that several police officers, instead of performing their duties unhindered, are riddled with open disciplinary actions, which are collapsing.
DIKO MP Pavlos Mylonas said that the police were destroyed by the entire political and media system where everyone easily targets police officers. However, he expressed concern about the legislation and who will keep the balance between citizens' rights and the police, in which there are also some criminal elements. At the same time, he said that the Police are running behind the concerns that the "EU Commissariats" have about personal data and others and at the end of the day they do not do their job to offer security to the citizen. He expressed concern that the proposal might create a legislative monstrosity.
Individual socialist MP Kostis Efstathiou said the authority aims to protect citizens from rights violations by some bad police officers. He added that the proposal is out of place and out of time, since the Authority is a complaint that it examines and not complaints. These complaints, he added, are overwhelmingly rejected because they concern events that take place in the absence of witnesses, in police stations, at night and with the support of weak characters who do not dare to confirm. He wondered what message would be sent to society and especially to whistleblowers.
DIKO MP Zacharias Koulias described the bill as correct and thorough, saying that the Authority or complaints against the police will not be abolished. He added that the majority of the police force is behaving properly and is not misbehaving as in the past. He noted that with flea jumping police officers are denounced because it does not suit something that has a cost for the citizen as well.
Nicosia MP Alexandra Attalidou recalled the violence inflicted some years ago by the police on two young children and proved by a citizen's video. It was also reported that she was present at an anti-corruption demonstration and saw with her own eyes what the police were doing. He noted that the citizen is the weak link and it must be ensured, even if abused, that there are all the channels that the citizen has to make his complaint. He said he could not, for these reasons, pass the law.
AKEL MP Aristos Damianou said that in a Complaints Investigation Authority, which has not shown the slew of decisions that shows that it is strict, there is a risk that the average citizen will be afraid to complain. He said that if there is criminalization, the results will be contrary to the objectives of the Authority. He said that in his experience as a lawyer, cases of allegations of abuse were not a rigged scheme. It is not the rule that is legislated, he added, but the exception.
MP Alekos Tryfonidis said that they do not want to restrict the citizen's right to complain, but they should also think about the right police officers who are the majority and with a far-fetched complaint they enter a very difficult process. He added that serious work is also being done in the Authority, modernized and restructured.
AKEL MP Giorgos Loucaides said that there was already little chance of a citizen to have his complaint vindicated and now with a proposal for a law we are telling the one who will take on a law enforcement officer that he has a chance of going to jail if the complaint is false and unfounded.
AKEL MP Irene Charalambidou said that all this would discourage whistleblowers from giving information and that as a President of the Human Rights Committee she could never give a positive vote to such a bill. He also suggested that cameras be put on police uniforms, as is done in other countries, to prevent false reports.
Amendment of the criminal code for the offence of public harm
At the same time, Parliament unanimously approved a law amending the Penal Code to establish the offence of public harm not only in cases where the false statement concerning an imaginary criminal offence is given to a police officer, but also when it is given to any other person authorised to conduct investigations in relation to the commission of a criminal offence.
Satisfaction with EQUALITY
The fruit of its efforts, as stated in an announcement by the trade union EQUALITY, is the adoption of an amendment to the Law of the Independent Authority for the Investigation of Allegations and Complaints against the Police (AADIPA) for criminal liability to people who falsely report police officers.
The announcement states that the amendment to the legislation, voted today in the plenary of the Parliament, "showed once again the absence of Trade Unionism for Police Officers that existed for decades", with the trade union EQUALITY assuring that it will remain "the sole voice defending the Security Forces, both for their working conditions and their labour rights".
"For 18 years, while police officers were falsely reported by members of organized crime, but also by people who committed criminal offenses, no other Guild has had the courage to publicly say and denounce the realities regarding conflicts of interest, the desirability of false complaints and the lack of impartiality," the statement concludes, confirming that EQUALITY will continue "to demand a solution to the dozens of problems that afflict us as well. Police officers."
CNA
