Police Get Suspended Sentences for Beatings

Eight police officers have received between two months and one-year suspended jail time for brutally beating two students in December 2005.

Their sentences have been suspended for three years, meaning that if they repeat the offences within the next three years, they will serve their jail time.

In March 2008, all ten officers involved in the beatings were acquitted of the beating and humiliation of students Marcos Papageorgiou and Yiannis Nikolaou on Armenias street in Nicosia. But in March 2010, the Cyprus Supreme Court unanimously ordered that eight out of the ten police officers accused of beating two students be retried using a video recording of the incident as evidence.

Retrial

The eight officers went back to court, facing up to 14 years in jail for grievous bodily harm. Evidence was based on a video showing the handcuffed students being repeatedly kicked and punched by their attackers as they lay handcuffed and helpless on the pavement. During the first trial the video was dismissed as invalid evidence, a decision decried by Attorney General Petros Clerides, who spoke out against the court's ruling and appealed to the Supreme Court.

The defendants are Andreas Efstathiou, Charis Charitos, Andreas Panayi, George Kylilis, Costas Toumbas and female officer Christiana Antoniou.

Co-defendants George Pavlou, Iordanis Iordanous, Andreas Christou and Tefkros Charalambous faced charges of failure to prevent a crime and dereliction of duty. Tefkros Charalambous and Andreas Christou will not go back to court and still stand as acquitted.

The following link to the Youtube.com video shows the eyewitness' video recording: