[prisoner-rights] Council of Europe anti-torture committee visits Cyprus

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22.12.2004 - A delegation of the Council of Europe's Committee for the
Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
(CPT) carried out a visit to Cyprus from 8 to 17 December 2004. It was the
Committee's fourth periodic visit to Cyprus.

The CPT's delegation examined the treatment of persons detained by the
police (including immigration detainees) and the effectiveness of the
formal safeguards against ill-treatment which are available to such
persons. It also reviewed developments at the Central Prisons and
Athalassa Psychiatric Hospital and, for the first time in Cyprus, examined
the situation in places accommodating children in the care of the
authorities.  The delegation will return early in 2005 in order to visit
places in the northern part of Cyprus where persons are deprived of their
liberty.

In the course of the visit, the delegation held consultations with Doros
THEODOROU, Minister for Justice and Public Order, as well as Sotos
ZACKHEOS, Lazaros SAVVIDES, Andis TRYPHONIDES and Petros KAREKLAS,
Permanent Secretaries respectively of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs,
Interior, Justice and Public Order, and Defence. It also met Solon
NIKITAS, Attorney General, and Eliana NICOLAOU, Commissioner for
Administration (Ombudsperson).

The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT:

      -     Mario FELICE, Head of delegation (Maltese)
      -     Isolde KIEBER (Liechtensteiner)
      -     Mauro PALMA (Italian)
      -     Ole Vedel RASMUSSEN (Danish).

They were supported by Jan MALINOWSKI, Head of Unit, Caterina BOLOGNESE
and Muriel ISELI of the CPT's Secretariat, and assisted by two experts,
Timothy HARDING, Director of the University Institute of Forensic
Medicine, Geneva (Switzerland), and James McMANUS, Professor of Criminal
Justice, Glasgow Caledonian University (United Kingdom).

The delegation visited the following places:

Police establishments

      - Police Prison (Block 10 of Nicosia Central Prisons)
      - Central Police Stations of Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos
      - Aradippou Police Station
      - Lycavitos Police Station, Nicosia
      - Holding facilities for immigration detainees at Larnaca Airport and
at the former Famagusta Police Station, Larnaca

Prisons

      - Nicosia Central Prisons

Psychiatric establishments

      - Athalassa Psychiatric Hospital

Establishments for children

      - Nicosia Hostel, Latsia
      - Paphos Home for Children


CPT Press release