House to vote on criminalising falsely accusing the police

Parliament is set to vote on a bill which will explicitly criminalise falsely accusing police officers of crimes or conduct violations, after the bill passed through the House legal committee on Wednesday.

The bill is an amendment to the law facilitating complaints against the police.

Speaking after Wednesday’s committee meeting, the bill’s author Disy MP Nikos Georgiou said the bill aims to “discourage the phenomenon of filing non-existent complaints against police officers for imaginary criminal or disciplinary offences”.

These complaints, he said, are “aimed at slandering or taking revenge on the police”, adding that 97 per cent of cases filed to the police complaints authority are rejected.

Trade union Isotita’s police force branch chairman Nikos Loizidis also threw his support behind the bill, saying that should it pass, his union will withdraw all the complaints it made to the Group of States against Corruption (Greco).

He said the law which allows for police to be investigated has “condemned, tortured, and humiliated police for 18 years and no one dealt with it”, but expressed relief that it is finally being amended with the criminalisation of false complaints.

Cyprus police association secretary Lefteris Kyriakou said false complaints have been “an inhibiting factor in the performance of the duties of our members on the front line”.