Coronavirus: Hundreds take part in anti-measures demo (Updated)

Several hundred people gathered outside the presidential palace on Saturday evening to protest coronavirus measures which they said were violating human rights.

The Nicosia-based demonstration started at 5pm, with about 400 demonstrators from all districts and ages holding banners.

Some of them were reading “the funeral of human freedom” and “we demand our freedom back” while other signs were against vaccination.

A Cyprus Mail correspondent said there were families with children, including a married couple who said they are there because they do not want their 18-year-old daughter to be forced to receive the jab.

“We are all ready to show the dictators that we are not afraid of any terrorism,” the organisers wrote on social media before the protest.

The demonstration aims “to show that the deniers are not denying any virus but refusing the silencing and violation of human rights,” they added.

Gynaecologist Andri Polydorou who gave a speech during the first hour of the protest said that there are more than 200,000 Greek Cypriots who “resisted the pressure” and remain unvaccinated, according to official data by the state.

“We are protesting against the dictatorial measures that are forced upon us using the pandemic as an excuse,” she said, explaining that she is for a ‘safe’ vaccine, but no one has the right to intervene in someone else’s body.

There was a heavy police presence with officers wearing protective gear but were keeping a distance from the protestors.