Agent provocateur?
By Jean Christou
VIDEO clips have surfaced on YouTube from last Sunday’s demonstration outside the Interior Ministry, which show a plainclothes policewoman apparently pretending she had been attacked by protesting immigrants.
One of the clips shows the woman, earlier photographed with uniformed and other plainclothes officers some distance from the demonstrators, somehow ending up on the ground screaming that she’d been attacked, although there was no one near her except other plainclothes officers.
The amateur video was shot by an EU citizen at the demonstration during which KISA general secretary Doros Polycarpou was taken away by police after he protested over their demands to shut down the music.
Not only have clips of the incident been posted on YouTube, but a website entitled “Police State’ has also been launched at http://kratosdikeou.blogspot.com/, where they can be viewed with commentary.
The maker of the video, who himself was threatened with arrest during the demonstration, said it was clear the female plainclothes officer was acting as an agent provocateur.
“The last video on display shows a plainclothes policewoman lying on the ground. I witnessed this incident and agree with the blog’s author, that this lady deserves an Oscar… She pretended to have been hurt by one of the asylum seekers who was subsequently beaten up by plainclothes policemen and ended up in hospital as a result,” the man told the Sunday Mail yesterday.
“I was told that it is not the first time the Cyprus police have used such tricks. These are shameful tactics, especially in a European Union country.”
The man, who wished to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, said Polycarpou had agreed to shut off the music and was just wrapping up with one more song following the speeches.
It was then that police started grabbing the sound equipment and subsequently dragged Polycarpou from the area when he protested that they were not causing any nuisance to anyone.
“It was clear they just wanted to arrest him and this was an excuse,” said the eye witness.
“While all this was happening and I was filming it, I suddenly saw the lady with short hair lying on the ground all on her own. It was obviously pretend,” he said. “As soon as she lay down, two male plainclothes officers, one with a track suit and sunglasses, ‘came to her rescue’. Then they accused the Iranian lady in the red jumper who was later taken to hospital in an ambulance.”
During the fracas when the female police officer was making the accusation against the protesters, a voice on one of the clips, mostly likely Iranian due to the accent, could be heard saying: ‘It’s not true. It’s not true”. Another voice was shouting: “No she fainted.”
The eyewitness said he had been shocked by the events, which had prompted him to let others know what had happened. He also attempted to make his feelings known to police at the scene.
“Disgusted by what I had seen, I approached the senior police officer in charge and told him – in my bad Greek that sounds Eastern European – that I felt like I was in a dictatorial regime (I named an example for him) and that I had not expected this from an EU Member State,” the man said.
“He told me: ‘I am arresting you because you attacked me.’ I invited him to proceed with the arrest and he instructed one of his assistants to hold me. I had been held for about one minute or so when my wife approached the senior officer and told him that she was going to report this
immediately to my embassy. When the officer realised that we were talking about an EU diplomatic representation in Nicosia, he quietly disappeared, thus ‘signalling’ to his assistant to release me. Shameful double standards.”
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008
Powder Keg
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Powder Keg
by zan » Sun Feb 03, 2008 12:19 pm
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zan - Leading Contributor
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by zan » Sun Feb 03, 2008 12:44 pm
First racist and then sexist
Women’s support group claims persecution over charges
By Jacqueline Theodoulou
WOMEN’S Information and Support Centre Apanemi was officially charged with 21 separate offences on Friday, after a lengthy 17-month investigation into the centre’s accounts.
The charges were dismissed as laughable by Apanemi founder Julia Kalimeri, who has repeatedly spoken out about the “persecution” that she and her shelter have been subjected to by the state ever since the centre was founded.
“After a 16-month investigation, they have given us 21 charges, which Apanemi is prepared to go to court to prove how ridiculous they are,” Kalimeri told the Mail on Friday.
Speaking on behalf of the police, Superintendent B’ Costas Veis confirmed that Kalimeri was facing 21 charges regarding false pretentions, fraud and the maintenance of fake accounts, all related to Company Law violations.
“You have to understand,” Veis explained, “the police cannot start a self-appointed investigation. Police received complaints from a number of people related to Apanemi before the Attorney-general ordered an investigation into the matter.”
But Kalimeri’s auditor, who wished to remain anonymous due to the pending investigation, insisted that the centre’s accounts had been audited and showed no problems or discrepancies.
“These charges are ridiculous and indicative of the persecution our support centre and I personally have had to endure since our first day of operation,” Kalimeri insisted.
She outlined a history of her centre’s operation and the resistance she claims she came across from the government, police and even other NGOs.
Apanemi began operating in April 2004. A few months earlier, the Labour Minister had spoken of the need for more shelters, an issue raised after the European Commissioner for Human Rights visited Cyprus.
“Coincidentally, that February in 2004, we had a sustainability report, the programme was ready, we had a hotline that was already in operation, volunteers, and we told him [then Labour Minister Makis Keravnos] that we were ready,” Kalimeri explained.
The ministry decided to offer £15,000 to open a shelter.
“For us, it was clear that a shelter was not enough. It needed an advice centre next to it. You don’t just take the women in and forget about them; they need legal aid, counselling and so on,” said Kalimeri.
“So in April we started the Women’s Support Centre in Limassol with three departments, while the shelter was ready two months later.”
The support centre officially started taking in victims in August 2004 and comprised three departments: one for violence against women, which had specialised staff and free legal aid for victims; a second department for migrant women, “because we saw this was a special category”; and a third that dealt with victims’ reintegration into society and the workforce.
“We are a gender orientated shelter, unlike KISA [Action for Equality Support and Antiracism in Cyprus]. And this is important: if a woman came to us we knew what to do, we were also implementing partners of the UNHCR [UN Refugee Agency] and we were trained to deal with refugees and asylum seekers,” says Kalimeri.
But she claims the idea of an intervention centre, hotline and shelter all working together was something the Labour Department did not seem to grasp.
“The holistic approach was a mystery to them. And they didn’t like that we were efficient.
“I remember the first statistics we sent for the first two-month period and there were around 200 people at the shelter, there was a person in the Welfare Office who said: ‘We don’t believe them. We cannot deal with such a large amount and they can?’”
This, according to Kalimeri, was when the conflict with the Welfare Office began.
“They were technocrats who were afraid of the unknown. That we could have handled, but for two years, they cut our state funding, resulting in us closing the shelter and opening again.”
In August 2005, the Labour Ministry sent a team of people to examine Apanemi’s finances. “They found nothing.”
By June 2005, Apanemi’s funding had been reduced from £15,000 a year to £7,000.
“We could not operate a shelter with £7,000. The helpline was funded by us, as was the advisory centre and all the other services and programmes. The Welfare Office was giving £15,000 to get what? A shelter, which we had to find another £15,000 to run as stated by law.”
Kalimeri also has a bone to pick with other state shelters, who she said did not offer her the support and solidarity expected, though she was keen to point out that the associations’ employees did a very good job, “and they do it for nothing, out of their own good heart.”
Apanemi then allegedly came across more opposition, such as the refusal of the police to install panic buttons in the shelter or the shelter’s address being leaked out.
Then, towards the end of 2006, a police investigation was launched. According to Kalimeri, police started contacting Apanemi personnel and associated people asking them for information on her, instructing them not to mention anything.
On April 17, 2007, police raided Kalimeri’s home and confiscated her accounts, which are still being held to this day.
Regarding the accounts, Superintendent Veis said they were being held under a court order as evidence.
He added that the support centre was not being persecuted, but prosecuted.
“Nobody is above the law. When a complaint is made, the police have a duty to investigate it.”
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008
Women’s support group claims persecution over charges
By Jacqueline Theodoulou
WOMEN’S Information and Support Centre Apanemi was officially charged with 21 separate offences on Friday, after a lengthy 17-month investigation into the centre’s accounts.
The charges were dismissed as laughable by Apanemi founder Julia Kalimeri, who has repeatedly spoken out about the “persecution” that she and her shelter have been subjected to by the state ever since the centre was founded.
“After a 16-month investigation, they have given us 21 charges, which Apanemi is prepared to go to court to prove how ridiculous they are,” Kalimeri told the Mail on Friday.
Speaking on behalf of the police, Superintendent B’ Costas Veis confirmed that Kalimeri was facing 21 charges regarding false pretentions, fraud and the maintenance of fake accounts, all related to Company Law violations.
“You have to understand,” Veis explained, “the police cannot start a self-appointed investigation. Police received complaints from a number of people related to Apanemi before the Attorney-general ordered an investigation into the matter.”
But Kalimeri’s auditor, who wished to remain anonymous due to the pending investigation, insisted that the centre’s accounts had been audited and showed no problems or discrepancies.
“These charges are ridiculous and indicative of the persecution our support centre and I personally have had to endure since our first day of operation,” Kalimeri insisted.
She outlined a history of her centre’s operation and the resistance she claims she came across from the government, police and even other NGOs.
Apanemi began operating in April 2004. A few months earlier, the Labour Minister had spoken of the need for more shelters, an issue raised after the European Commissioner for Human Rights visited Cyprus.
“Coincidentally, that February in 2004, we had a sustainability report, the programme was ready, we had a hotline that was already in operation, volunteers, and we told him [then Labour Minister Makis Keravnos] that we were ready,” Kalimeri explained.
The ministry decided to offer £15,000 to open a shelter.
“For us, it was clear that a shelter was not enough. It needed an advice centre next to it. You don’t just take the women in and forget about them; they need legal aid, counselling and so on,” said Kalimeri.
“So in April we started the Women’s Support Centre in Limassol with three departments, while the shelter was ready two months later.”
The support centre officially started taking in victims in August 2004 and comprised three departments: one for violence against women, which had specialised staff and free legal aid for victims; a second department for migrant women, “because we saw this was a special category”; and a third that dealt with victims’ reintegration into society and the workforce.
“We are a gender orientated shelter, unlike KISA [Action for Equality Support and Antiracism in Cyprus]. And this is important: if a woman came to us we knew what to do, we were also implementing partners of the UNHCR [UN Refugee Agency] and we were trained to deal with refugees and asylum seekers,” says Kalimeri.
But she claims the idea of an intervention centre, hotline and shelter all working together was something the Labour Department did not seem to grasp.
“The holistic approach was a mystery to them. And they didn’t like that we were efficient.
“I remember the first statistics we sent for the first two-month period and there were around 200 people at the shelter, there was a person in the Welfare Office who said: ‘We don’t believe them. We cannot deal with such a large amount and they can?’”
This, according to Kalimeri, was when the conflict with the Welfare Office began.
“They were technocrats who were afraid of the unknown. That we could have handled, but for two years, they cut our state funding, resulting in us closing the shelter and opening again.”
In August 2005, the Labour Ministry sent a team of people to examine Apanemi’s finances. “They found nothing.”
By June 2005, Apanemi’s funding had been reduced from £15,000 a year to £7,000.
“We could not operate a shelter with £7,000. The helpline was funded by us, as was the advisory centre and all the other services and programmes. The Welfare Office was giving £15,000 to get what? A shelter, which we had to find another £15,000 to run as stated by law.”
Kalimeri also has a bone to pick with other state shelters, who she said did not offer her the support and solidarity expected, though she was keen to point out that the associations’ employees did a very good job, “and they do it for nothing, out of their own good heart.”
Apanemi then allegedly came across more opposition, such as the refusal of the police to install panic buttons in the shelter or the shelter’s address being leaked out.
Then, towards the end of 2006, a police investigation was launched. According to Kalimeri, police started contacting Apanemi personnel and associated people asking them for information on her, instructing them not to mention anything.
On April 17, 2007, police raided Kalimeri’s home and confiscated her accounts, which are still being held to this day.
Regarding the accounts, Superintendent Veis said they were being held under a court order as evidence.
He added that the support centre was not being persecuted, but prosecuted.
“Nobody is above the law. When a complaint is made, the police have a duty to investigate it.”
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008
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zan - Leading Contributor
- Posts: 16213
- Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 8:55 pm
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