How are we to trust police force?
THE LEAST that can be said is that Cyprus faces a major crisis of confidence in the police and the courts in the wake of the sensational acquittal this week of ten policemen accused of beating up two young students after a vehicle check in 2005.
The ruling has sparked a furious reaction, led by the Attorney-general, and fuelled by genuine popular anger that spilled over into a noisy demonstration outside the courts on Friday.
The fact is the grainy footage of plain clothed police officers kicking the handcuffed youths as they lay prone on the ground has been seared into the public consciousness – a symbol of everything seen as rotten with the police force. But while for the public it was shocking evidence of guilt – similar to the Rodney King video that sparked the LA riots in 1992 – the judges saw the very notoriety of those images as invalidating the evidence, saying they had “denied the police of the right to a fair trial”.
The judges also cited the refusal to testify of the witness who shot the video and cast doubts on its authenticity, refusing to accept the Attorney-general’s testimony on the witness’s behalf. But while that anonymity certainly did not help the prosecution’s case, it is in itself a symptom of the deep mistrust, even fear of the police.
There may have been flaws and errors in the prosecution case – clearly there was enough of a foothold for the judges to dismiss the case. And the reaction of the Attorney-general, barging into the courtroom while the judgment was being read out to question the ruling on the video evidence, will have confirmed the judges’ view that they were right to resist what they have portrayed as trial by public opinion.
But the overriding perception remains that the police are above the law, and that the court was looking for loopholes in the prosecution case in much the same way as a defence lawyer would do, rather than taking a broad view of all the evidence at hand.
Let us not forget that until the video came to light several months after the events, not only had the victims’ complaints been dismissed in spite of their obvious injuries, but five of the officers involved had actually brought assault charges against the students. How in those circumstances can the judges have dismissed identification of the suspects by their superiors and the victims, when at least those five had placed themselves at the centre of the incident through their own actions?
The fact is that it should not have taken a video leaked to the media to bring this case to court. The day after the incident, the father of one of the students had vowed to bring the officers involved to justice: “Both his eyes are black. His face is all bruised. He has concussion, headaches, blurred vision – you name it,” he told this paper at the time. Yet nothing happened and it was his son who found himself facing assault charges until the video emerged three months later.
Only this week, a teenager from Zimbabwe claims he was physically and racially abused by police officers when he was called in for questioning over a stolen moped. Responding to his allegations, the chief of Nicosia police insisted that, “no one is above the law, especially the police”. But who will believe that claim in the wake of this ruling? If two Cypriot students, from middle class professional families, whose savage beating in the middle of a central Nicosia street was caught on video have failed to obtain justice, then what hope of justice is there for an African immigrant allegedly abused without witnesses behind the closed doors of a police station?
Even before this week’s verdict, a survey showed that two thirds of the population had no confidence in the police. How could it be otherwise when police allowed a convicted double rapist and murderer to come and go at will for several months from a hospital room where he had established his headquarters until he finally escaped altogether? How are we to trust the force, when none of its leaders have accepted the slightest responsibility for those farcical events, worse when the Attorney-general has complained of systematic obstruction into his investigation of the case?
The ten officers acquitted will now almost certainly be reinstated to the force, most likely compensated for the pay lost due to their suspension, and perhaps even promoted to make up for an advance missed while they were off the beat. Can you blame the public for feeling nervous about their every contact with police? Can you blame the one victim still completing his studies abroad for never wanting to return to Cyprus?
The Attorney-general says irreversible harm has been done to institutions whose duty it is to protect the public. It will be a long, long time before public trust in the courts and the police can be restored.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009