Project under European Commission Grant AGIS JLS/2006/AGIS/034
Cyprus

Cyprus

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ATTENTION:
The following information refers only to the Republic of Cyprus.
It cannot be considered in force in the de facto Turkish State of the Republic of Northern Cyprus (recognized only by Turkey) or in SBA (Sovereign Base Areas) or UK administrated areas.

Institutional links

Various acts providing fundamental rules

  • Constitution
    http://www.kypros.org/Constitution/English/

    Appendix, Part 1.
    Article 3: language of proceedings and judgements is either Greek or Turkish depending on the community the parties belong to.
    Appendix D, Part II: fundamental rights and liberties.
    Article 7: right to life. Hypothesis of death penalty; some "defences" making the deprivation of life not unlawful in respect to this article. N.B. The second hypothesis concerns the death provoked as a consequence of effecting an arrest or attempting to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained.
    Article 8: prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment.
    Article 11: inviolability of personal liberty. Paragraph 2: hypothesis of deprivation of personal liberty respecting the rule of law. N.B. Concerning the trial stadium (and thus earlier than a sentence of conviction) a person can be arrested or detained in reason of his noncompliance of a lawful order of a court. Paragraph 3: no arrest without a reasoned judicial warrant, except in cases of flagrant and serious (i.e. punishable with death or imprisonment) offence. Paragraph 4 (most important): right to be informed, in an understandable language, of the reasons of his arrest and right to have the assistance of a lawyer of his own choice. Paragraph 5: a person has the right either to be brought before a court as soon as possible and no later than 24 hours, or to be set free. Paragraph 6: the court proceeds to inquire if the charges are well-founded; if the suspect is not released, the judge may hold him in custody for a period of up to 8 days, renewable from time to time for no more than 3 months (N.B. This is still the pre-trial stage. In other words, one can be detained for up to 3 months before being formally accused and definitely routed to trial). N.B. The arrested has the right to inquire of the grounds of the arrest in an understandable language. Article 12, Paragraph 5: minimum rights of persons charged with offences. Namely: right to be informed in a comprehensible language of the charge(s) against him; right to adequate time and facilities for the defence; right to defence, both by self and through a lawyer (and to free assistance if he has no sufficient means); equal powers to examine witnesses; right to an interpreter.
    Article 28: equality before the law.
    Article 30: right to access to justice; right to a fair hearing by an independent, impartial and competent court. Paragraph 3 sets some rights similar to those established by Article 12, here referred to every case of involvement in a trial, not only for criminal cases.
    Appendix D, Part IX: The Supreme Constitutional Court
    Human Rights Committee: Considerations of reports submitted by state members of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.
  • Summary of the Meeting held in Geneva, 13 July 1994
    http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/5cabe62c6f1eb1fec12563a20037dfd6?Opendocument
    Especially, concerning the pre-trial guarantees:
    “(f) How soon after arrest can a person contact a lawyer, and how quickly is the person's family informed?”
    “27. The matter referred to in question (f) was not regulated by law, but, in practice, a lawyer was contacted before the arrested person was brought before the court. Under the Constitution, a person must be brought before the court within 24 hours of his arrest. Therefore, a lawyer or the person's relatives were informed of the arrest within the same period. A bill was before the House of Representatives to regulate the arrest and detention of persons, including the right to inform a lawyer, relatives, and a medical officer within a specific time. The objective of the bill was to prevent torture and ill-treatment of detainees."

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