A Video footage showing two police officers viciously beating a man at Polis Chrysochous station last year has stirred public opinion.
The video, which was uploaded onto the personal Facebook page of lawyer Epaminondas Korakides, has prompted both Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou and Police Chief Zacharias Chrysostomou to issue statements. Korakides is the lawyer of the man taking the beating, who was subsequently jailed for 18 months this week after being found guilty of nine charges relating to assaulting a police officer.
The lawyer said that his client was not cooperating with police and was demanding medical attention prompting the two officers to retaliate like they did in the footage. He also said that one of the officers struck his client with handcuffs resulting in injuries to his head.
Commenting on the footage, Nicolaou said that an independent investigator had been appointed by Attorney General Costas Clerides to look into the complaint but that he reportedly found ‘no wrongdoing’. But the attorney general, unconvinced with the investigator’s findings, ordered the two officers to be charged anyway.
Also commenting was Chrysostomou who said, “I cannot speak about a specific ongoing investigation because it could jeopardise the course of justice. But I will say that any officer not abiding by the law does not deserve to be part of the police force.”