Filenews 28 March 2025 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
The reaction of the Parliament was caused by two actions of the Police related to the extrajudicial actions from the photolabeling system and the service of the thousands pending.
Both the announcement-invitation to drivers to check through the platform of the company that manages the system to see if they have an out-of-court ticket and if they want to pay it with the warning that they will be prosecuted if they do not pay it, as well as the intention to carry out checks at airports for undelivered extrajudicial tickets, "annoyed" MPs who registered relevant issues for discussion.
Both of these issues have been included in the agenda of the Legal Affairs Committee for its meeting next Wednesday, April 2, and in fact the directors general of two ministries, two Commissioners and many officials have been invited to examine the legality of these two actions of the Police.
The first issue, which concerns the possible legal issues arising from the way citizens are informed about the payment of out-of-court fines after a violation has been recorded by the photo-tagging cameras and the possible impact on the fundamental rights of citizens, has already been discussed in a previous session of the Committee with MPs unleashing accusations against the competent services, that this action has no legal basis. On the other hand, the Legal Service refuted this position, claiming that the public was voluntarily called upon to check whether an out-of-court settlement was pending against them and whether they wanted to pay for it, which does not violate any law.
The new issue that has been added concerns the intention of the competent authorities of the Republic to serve the extrajudicial fines issued against citizens at the points of entry and exit of the Republic on the basis of the so-called "Photo Radar List" application, (ex officio examination following the suggestion of Mr. Aristos Damianos and Mr. Andreas Pasiourtidis) and after a relevant publication by "F".
This measure is being promoted in an effort to hand over the more than 200,000 undelivered extrajudicial penalties to offending drivers and is considered by the Police to have the right to do so, as it does with other issues. As we were told, today the Police have vehicles that have the ANPR system installed, which recognizes the license plates and determines if the vehicle is stolen, if it has a MOT, if the driver is wanted, etc. and can stop it wherever it is located. In this way, it considers that it has the right, when it has a citizen in front of it, to check whether it is wanted, or if anything is pending against it. Otherwise, she will be accused of being under her attention and not controlling him.
On the other hand, MPs believe that the Police cannot stop and control a citizen without reasonable suspicion and that this action constitutes a violation of his rights.
