zan wrote:Cyprus Mail Article Giving the Details of the ECHR Decision and Torture of Erkan Egilmez (Named as Osman Egilmez Yousouf) by the Greek Cypriot police.
£10,000 for Turkish Cypriot beaten up by police
By Martin Hellicar Cyprus Mail 23 Dec. 2000.
THE GOVERNMENT yesterday said it would comply with a European Court of Human Rights ruling ordering it to pay some £10,000 in compensation to a Turkish Cypriot heroin smuggling suspect viciously beaten by police five years ago.
"The government respects the decisions of international bodies," Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said. He promised the government would learn the lessons of the damning court ruling and "draw the necessary conclusions" for future action. "Of course there are weaknesses and problems and the government is fighting to solve these problems," Papapetrou said, pointing the finger at the police force. The court ruling, released late on Thursday, condemned Cyprus for "inhuman" treatment of Osman Eimez Yousouf, who was arrested after a drug squad sting operation in the buffer zone near Lymbia village on October 7, 1995.
"The Cyprus government admitted that, during and immediately after the arrest of the suspect, the police deliberately abused him," the court stated in its ruling. Yousouf, 34 at the time of his arrest, was unexpectedly released to return to the north on December 1 -- three days before he was due to stand trial on 11 drugs charges -- after he filed a complaint that he had been badly beaten by police.
Police insisted the suspect had been injured while resisting arrest. But his injuries were so severe that the Nicosia District Court had to convene in Larnaca hospital to remand him the day after his arrest. It later emerged that police wearing balaclavas had continued to beat Yousouf inside Larnaca hospital on the night of his arrest, ignoring nurses' protests. Nurses said officers used a sharp instrument to slash Yousouf on the ear, back and soles of his feat.
The Strasbourg court noted that nothing could excuse the treatment meted out to Yousouf: "Even under the most difficult conditions, such as in the battle against organised crime, the European Human Rights Convention completely bans torture and abuse of detainees." Cyprus was ordered to pay £10,400 Sterling in compensation to Yousouf, who comes from occupied Louroudjina village, not far from Lymbia in the Nicosia district, where he was arrested five years ago. At the time of Yousouf's release, the government denied it was trying to swap the Turkish Cypriot for two Greek Cypriots held in the north at the time. One of the Greek Cypriots, 19-year-old National Guardsman George Karotsakis, was set free by the Turks a few days after Yousouf's release. This is exactly the sort of exchange the relatives of Panicos Tsiakourmas, still being held by the Turks yesterday, are demanding that the government make, by releasing Turkish Cypriot drug suspect Omer Tekoglu from Larnaca police holding cells. The government has ruled out any such swap deal.
Coincidentally, Tekoglu and Yousouf were both arrested for allegedly trying to sell exactly the same quantity of heroin -- two kilos - to undercover drugs squad officers. Yousouf was also suspected of involvement in animal snuggling and of working for the Turkish secret services, MIT. The leader of main opposition party AKEL, Demetris Christofias, yesterday said the government had no choice but to comply with the Strasbourg court ruling.
"A government fighting for respect for the human rights of our whole people by condemning Turkey and taking her to human rights courts has no choice but to pay for wrong actions," he said. Cyprus has been pushing to get Ankara to comply with an earlier European Court of Human Rights decision ordering Turkey to pay massive compensation to Greek Cypriot Titina Loizidou for denying her access to her Kyrenia property because of the occupation. Christofias, like Papapetrou, said the police were at fault in the Yousouf case: "These are actions not of the government but of certain bodies which get out of line and cause these problems for the Cyprus Republic," the AKEL leader said.
Its all relative really. £10,000 is equivalent to 10 years salary in the "trnc". The guy would be living like a Pasha in "trnc".
oops, looks like I've struck a nerve... 
