I helped my mother, a 19-year permanent resident of Cyprus, attend the Larnaca court this morning to meet up with her lawyer and submit some legal paperwork.

It was interesting to note that since her last visit, several years ago, there was now a screening machine for items such as handbags, keys, mobile phones etc. and also a walk-through scanner. If need be the security staff would also scan, with a wand, over the whole body.

Interestingly, my mother’s artificial hip did not register a need for the wand to be used after she walked through the body scanner.

All this, I’m sure, is of little interest to anyone who either frequents any airport security prior to entering a departure lounge or who is a regular visitor to the courthouse.

What may be of interest is what I observed for the 20 minutes I sat waiting in the entrance foyer, whilst my mother and her lawyer attended to her legal matter with a court representative down the corridor, that every legal representative, clerks, lawyers, judges etc, can simply walk straight through the front entrance door of the court building and are not asked to go through any part of the security screening.

I was at first a bit confused by what I saw – all these legal professionals apparently neither need their belongings, bags, briefcases, box folders, or themselves, to go through security screening.

Somehow, someone, somewhere has decided legal professionals are beyond the necessity of making sure the court building is as secure as they presume it to be, by only screening members of the public.
I’ve visited many countries, travelled from many airports and have never ever seen or heard of a security screening system that excluded certain staff, as somehow they are not a risk to security.

Even pilots and cabin crew have to pass through the same security as the general public, thus ensuring as much as is possible, that the security of everyone is as good as it can be.

The idea that legal professionals are somehow seen to be exempt from the same security screening as members of the public in a court building seems a little bit ridiculous to me.

Either implement a screening system that everyone has to pass through or don’t have the system at all.

Craig Cleveland, a regular Cyprus visitor