Coronavirus:  Woman with learning difficulties to appeal 8998 fine

A young woman with learning difficulties fined for breaching coronavirus protocols will lodge an appeal with the complaint review committee set up specially for this purpose, police said on Thursday.

According to reports, the woman was stopped on Wednesday afternoon in Paralimni by a policeman while taking a walk with her sister and fined for not being able to present a text message giving her permission to be out.

The young woman’s sister detailed the incident in a now-deleted post on social media, revealing that her sister, a silver-medal Paralympics swimmer, has a slight learning difficulty.

The interaction with the policeman triggered a panic attack, she added, asking for more understanding for individuals with disabilities.

After the post went viral the two sisters and their mother were called to a meeting with the Famagusta police chief to discuss the incident.

It was not apparent that the woman had any disabilities when she was stopped, and given how short the interaction was, the policeman who stopped her did not report any sort of incident or panic attack, police spokesman Christos Andreou told the Cyprus News Agency.

The complainant will be appealing the fine to the complaint review committee, and legal services will examine the case to see whether it was justified or not.

Andreou explained that the committee was formed when the first coronavirus measures were introduced. Those who believe they have been unfairly booked by police or treated too harshly and want to contest it can write to the committee.

The text message rule will no longer apply after lockdown is lifted on Monday, May 10. Instead, people must present a so-called  Coronapass, which entails either having a 72-hour-old negative PCR/rapid test for Covid or having received at least one dose of a vaccine three weeks earlier or having contracted the virus in the past six months.