Only 20% of the unserved out-of-court notices from the Traffic Police cameras have been served by the management company, while the Police are being shot for the way it attempts to serve pending out-of-court documents.
The issue of the new way of serving out-of-court notices by the Traffic Police occupied the parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs again yesterday with the MPs reacting, because they are served out of court at airports and ports. The director of the Traffic Police, Haris Evripidou, was adamant that such a thing is not possible and there is no possibility.
From the discussion in the Committee, it appeared that with the current data there is a problem in the way out-of-court notices are served since at the moment there are more than 360,000 pending, while at the same time an issue arose with those who have the wrong address, accumulated out-of-court notices and will not be able to pay €1,000 or more in 90 days.
A relevant law proposal was registered by AKEL MP Andreas Pasiourtidis, who requested the submission of the opinion of the Legal Service, which allows the service of extrajudicial notices at checkpoints and police stations and even airports. He wondered what will happen to those who have the wrong address and have accumulated out-of-court documents?
The other AKEL MP, Aristos Damianou, stressed that the state should not constantly invent mechanisms to trap citizens, that the administration must apply the laws as well as the citizens. "Mafia tactics and Solomon's solutions are outside the letter of the law. I have 17 complaints from citizens who were either at the barricades or at the airports and were stopped by the Police for warrants. You are breaking the law, so you have to stop. The system, we were told, cannot be implemented because of Schengen and now citizens are being stopped in the ceasefire line, these things are a shame. This practice must stop, a family man who went to the airport was stopped and exposed."
In the Committee, a representative of the Ministry of Justice stated that the photoradar list is not implemented and the Police does not operate on its basis. Service takes place at police stations and roadblocks, it does not take place at airports and ports, nor is identity card retained at the checkpoints.
After this statement, Mr. Damianou reacted strongly and the following dialogue followed:
Damianou: It is done at airports and ports.
– Euripidou: It is not possible
– Damianou: It is possible
– Euripidou: Since I'm telling you, it's not possible, since it can't be located. Where you put your ID or passport, it has no connection to the out-of-court system.
-Damianou: I want you to answer me. Did citizens stop at the airport?
– Evripidou: No way. He doesn't even have a printer there at the control, how will he serve the out-of-court notice to him?
– Damianou: I have evidence of police officers telling me to intervene so that the leadership stops the instructions to stop people at the barricades.
The director of the Traffic Police stated that the service takes place at police stations, at barricades, or where the police officer has access to a computer. Even if he has an out-of-court notice at the airport, he is not issued, he said. In a remark by Mr. Pasiourtidis whether a citizen can bypass the system and go to the police officer who is at passport control and he can tell him that he has an out-of-court notice, Mr. Evripidou said that if it happened it is a mistake and he will check it. He clarified that the out-of-court documents that are served are those that were not received as registered by the post office, or a beneficiary has tried it and failed to deliver it.
Despite the efforts, it was not possible to operate a list for the Turkish Cypriots as well. A representative of the Ministry of Transport stated that a bill provides for the service of out-of-court documents by sms or email and that to date 190.000 attempts have been completed for the service of out-of-court documents by a beneficiary with a price of 0.92 cents per out-of-court ticket. Only 20% of them were delivered.
However, the discussion in the Committee revealed different interpretations as to the manner in which out-of-court documents are served and the limits of the powers of the competent authorities. The discussion is expected to continue at the next meeting of the Committee.
