A crime commited by a Cypriot similar to the old one:
This man should never have been out on bail
THE TURKISH Cypriot man who, according to the police, confessed to the abduction, rape and murder of 20-year-old Slovakian woman, Janka Kovacova, was due to stand trial in October for the rape of a Russian woman. So why was he not in prison awaiting trial? A judge had granted him bail until the trial on condition that he reported to the Pera Chorio Nisou police station three times a week, a lamentably inadequate condition as subsequent events have shown.
The fact is that if the suspected rapist had been kept in custody until his trial, Janka would still be alive today. The judge who granted him bail should try and explain to the young woman’s family his reasoning for letting the suspect go free. Did the judge really believe that by ordering the suspect to report to a police station three times a week, the public would be safe? Would his human rights have been violated if he was locked up until the trial or would it have affected relations with the Turkish Cypriot community?
This was not a house chicken thief or shoplifter, it was a man charged with rape. And even if he had not been found guilty, surely, he should have been kept behind bars until the trial, on the grounds that he posed a public danger. The police, who have no qualms about keeping harmless illegal immigrants and asylum seekers in prison for months, quite clearly regarded a suspected rapist as less of a public danger. Or perhaps, the courts and the police do not consider rape as a very serious crime. The experience, a couple of weeks ago, of an east European woman, who was treated less than sympathetically by police officers after reporting that she had been raped adds substance to this theory.
In fairness, the courts do impose custodial sentences to rapists. However, judges seem to show excessive leniency to suspects awaiting trial. Yesterday, the municipal employee detained in connection with downloading vast amounts of child pornography through the internet was also released pending charges.
There could be practical reasons for granting bail to suspects charged with criminal offences, such as overcrowding of the prisons and the long waiting period for a trial.
Perhaps the law does not allow judges to keep a suspect in prison until the trial date, except for specific criminal cases. If this is the case, then the law needs to be changed, but in the meantime judges could cite ‘protecting the public’ as justification for ordering the detainment of a suspect until the trial.
Judges need to be tougher on suspects in cases of serious crime, in order to protect the rest of us. Had the judge presiding in the rape case been tougher, denying bail to the suspect, Janka would still be alive today.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2006
A problem with Cyprus courts and Justice ?
