in-cyprus 3 February 2025 - by Christina Karakondylou
After the end of a peaceful march on January 19 against racism and the killing of Pakistani migrant Shoaib Khan by police, officers attacked and arrested three demonstrators.
The incident has been criticised by civil society groups who spoke of unlawful arrests and suppression of their constitutional rights.
Specifically, two women were arrested and are now facing charges of insulting police officers, causing disturbance to bystanders, rioting, resisting lawful arrest, and aggressive behaviour towards police officers.
Another man who filmed one of the arrests also ended up charged with a potential violation under the law on GDPR.
Far Right Watch Cyprus commented on video evidence showing “these individuals not only didn’t resist arrest or display aggressive behaviour, but were themselves subjected to unprovoked police action at the march’s conclusion”.
When around 30-40 protesters gathered outside the police station where the three were being held, riot police issued a five-minute ultimatum to disperse, citing Article 70 of the criminal code. Activists say this law pertains to assemblies planning criminal acts, not peaceful protests against arrests.
But what rights do demonstrators have in Cyprus? Did the police overstep their boundaries and when can you film in public spaces?
Human rights lawyer Nicoletta Charalambidou answers these questions.
Police invoked Article 70 of the Criminal Code which pertains to rioting and unlawful assembly, to call on people staging a sit-in protest to disperse. In this case, was there legitimate reason for police to invoke it?
How can a sit-in protest be classified as rioting? The conditions for rioting are not met here. The police must explain to whom reasonable fear was caused. Police are infringing on the constitutional right to protest and freedom of expression. I cannot comprehend what crime was possibly committed by holding a sit-in protest.
A sit-in protest cannot be arbitrarily classified as a disturbance, as there are specific conditions that must be met for something to be classified as rioting.
The charges the two women are facing include “public insult” and “insulting a police officer”, for allegedly chanting an anti-police slogan. Is chanting a slogan in the context of a protest considered public insult?
This particular chant is a widely used political slogan against police as an institution, by citizens who perceive law enforcement as an instrument of suppression rather than protection. The slogan is political in nature, not personal or directed towards someone. How can a political slogan constitute public insult, and what then justifies using force to make an arrest?
Political slogans, even controversial ones, are protected under the right to freedom of expression.
Police officers should be specially trained to tolerate even political slogans critical of law enforcement. This is a political, not a personal matter.
Our sources maintain that when the arrests were made, police did not tell the arrestees what they were being charged with. What does the law tell us about arrests?
It is illegal not to inform citizens immediately of the reason for their arrest, the charges, and their rights (to remain silent, to be represented by a lawyer of their choice). If the arrested individuals were not informed of their charges, the arrest itself is flawed.
Police confiscated a protester’s phone and indicated that they were in violation of GDPR legislation. Is it illegal to film in public, and is there a difference when filming police officers on duty?
A police officer is a representative of the state while on duty. They cannot be considered a data subject in the same way it is defined in GDPR Regulations. Furthermore, under GDPR Regulation Article 6, there are exceptions for collecting personal data without consent in cases of legitimate interest by the person collecting the data or a third party to protect their fundamental rights and freedoms – for example when documenting potential crimes (such as unlawful arrest or use of force).
Do you think that there has been an increase in complaints for police officers abusing their power?
There have been persistent complaints against police for using disproportionate force and making unlawful arrests. There are problems with how the police operate, whether through illegal arrests and use of force, or through omissions, as we saw in Limassol and Paphos during the pogroms, where police didn’t act with the same vigour. There were legitimate reasons to suppress the far-right groups which were inciting violence, and crimes were indeed being committed there – we saw violence, destruction of property – but police didn’t intervene with the same determination in those cases.
We’ve seen disproportionate use of violence in peaceful protests, while in other instances where violence was used by groups against civilians the police response was notably different.
