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Unless you know someone who KNOWS someone, be very afraid..

Police ‘afraid’ to arrest hooligans
By Jacqueline Theodoulou
POLICE ARE afraid of arresting rampaging football hooligans, Police Chief Iacovos Papacostas said yesterday.

The admission was made at the House Legal Affairs Committee during a discussion over last week’s violent attacks by football fans against the force.

Without elaborating on the reasons for police fears, Papacostas said the most recent riot, which took place last weekend following a football match between Anorthosis Famagusta and AC Omonia, resulted in 33 policemen being injured. Nobody was arrested, he added, because “the police are scared”.

The force, he added, is contemplating a number of measures, among which is to have high-risk games carried out during the day.

Papacostas highlighted the need for hooliganism cases to reach the courtrooms as soon as possible. He said the force can be ready to file a case to court within 24 hours of a crime being committed.

In response, Committee Chairman Ionas Nicolaou of DISY said he had met with the President of the Supreme Court, who had accepted his suggestion to offer priority to cases that have to do with football violence.

“For this reason, following our meeting [on Wednesday], he assured me that he would order all District Judges to prioritise these cases for trial and if possible, for these cases to reach a conclusion within 15 days,” Nicolaou explained.

“Following this meeting, I also met with the Attorney-general, who also agreed to instruct the head of the Public Defenders to give priority to these cases and prepare the cases in time, so that they are not being constantly postponed.”

He added, “Only by immediately trying and imposing fines will we be able to send out the right messages and combat these phenomena of violence”.

The penalties, said Nicolaou, need to be very strict if similar outbursts are to be avoided in the future.

“It is of vital importance that the fines provided in the new law are implemented, including the possible of banning entry to certain fans into stadiums,” he pointed out.

One of the recently-passed law’s provisions specifies that someone who is banned from attending matches should go to a police station during their team’s games.

The Legal Affairs Committee, which was charged with drafting the football hooliganism law, has now come up with 15 measures, which it plans to examine in order to find ways to better implement the law.

“The Committee has set a timeframe in which it will examine these measures, but it will also request an implementation programme for these measures,” said Nicolaou.

“Unfortunately, football violence has gotten out of control, taking on completely different dimensions,” he added.

Speaking after the meeting, the Committee Chairman added, “We are observing hooliganism being turned against the police, to a point where policemen themselves are starting to get frightened”.

“We can see this vendetta forming and if it isn’t dealt with immediately, violent phenomena will become much worse in coming games,” he said, adding that it was unacceptable to see statements or announcements such as “hate them for 90 minutes” on football club websites.

DIKO Deputy Nicolas Papadopoulos added, “We should be ashamed as a state, when the police are saying they are too scared to monitor high risk games”.

Football clubs, he continued, need to understand that they not only have rights, but obligations too.

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