THREE MEN ARRESTED FOR GAY SEX IN CYPRUS

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Dr Michael Sarris

Three men, including former Cyprus Finance Minister Dr Michael Sarris (65), have been arrested for having gay sex in Northern Cyprus, the only region in Europe that still criminalises homosexuality.

Last week, police in the Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus arrested the three men in a private home. According to reports, one of the men is a 17-year-old teenager, although he is over the legal age of consent.

After five days spent under arrest, a court yesterday prolonged the men’s arrest for two more days, claiming the police needed to complete the investigation into the charge of “conspiring to have a sexual intercourse against the order of nature”.

The offence carries a penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment.

Cypriot members of the European Parliament Eleni Theocharous and Ioannis Kasoulides called for the immediate release of the three men.

“These arrests are in full breach of international law and the human right to private life. Charging them is illegal under human rights law, denies their most basic rights, and is wholly unnecessary as no harm was done. Consenting adults have the right to engage in sexual intercourse with people of the same sex, these men must be freed now!”

Michael Cashman MEP, Co-president of the Intergroup on LGBT Rights in the European Parliament, also added: “These men must be released without delay, and the binding jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights must be implemented immediately in the whole island of Cyprus. The criminalisation of homosexuality has no place in the 21st century.”

The Intergroup on LGBT Rights urged Turkish authorities in Cyprus to release the three men and clear them of all charges without delay.

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