The Department of Prisons attributes the reference made in a report by a European body, which states that laboratory tests are not conducted to ascertain the extent of drug use by inmates in Cyprus, to a mistake.
In a statement released yesterday by the prison management, it is stated that urine tests for the detection of illegal substances are conducted daily on inmates, based on the relevant article of the Prison Law.
At the same time, the Department of Prisons states that the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction mistakenly presented Cyprus as one of the three European countries where such tests are not conducted.
It is noted that “following the identification of an error by the Cyprus Anti-Drug Authority in a report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, with relevant correspondence, the situation in Cyprus was correctly reflected and this specific information was updated on the EMCDDA website in October 2022.”
The clarification by the Department of Prisons was prompted by an article in Phileleftheros last Monday, in which we reported that the Chief of Police, Stelios Papatheodorou, issued instructions to intensify surveillance and investigations regarding inmates (convicted and under trial) being transferred from the correctional facility to the Courts.
In the relevant written directive sent on behalf of the leadership of the Force to heads of departments, services, and units of the Police, it is recorded that there were cases with inmates who, during their transfer from the Courts to the Prisons, carried drugs and prohibited items, such as mobile phones.
At the end of the report, we noted: “According to a report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Cyprus is one of the three countries in Europe where drug use among prisoners in correctional facilities is not monitored.”
However, despite the Cyprus Anti-Drug Authority asserting that the above reference is incorrect and has been corrected, nevertheless, the relevant note in a report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction presenting Cyprus along with Greece and France as not conducting checks on inmates in prisons, remains published on the official website of the European agency.
Phileleftheros has already contacted both the Cyprus Anti-Drug Authority and the Department of Prisons to clarify – among other things – why this particular report, officially refuted, appeared in the report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
An authorized person who spoke to the newspaper mentioned 8,575 checks on inmates of the Central Prisons within 2022. They were unable to inform us about the results of these checks.
The Minister of Justice, Marios Hartsiotis, in his statements on Sigma TV yesterday, confirmed the front-page article of Phileleftheros in last Monday’s issue.
When asked about it, he replied as follows: “From the very beginning, I have noticed significant gaps in this area. That is, the fact that certain mobile phones or drugs enter the Prisons. The action that has already been publicized was essentially a decision of the Ministry of Justice regarding drugs and similar instructions, as the supervising Authority, to the Police headquarters. Most of the cases where drugs have entered concern individuals, under trial or convicted, who move periodically to the local district Courts and return to the Prisons for all the judicial procedures that need to be done. (…) There will be full monitoring now from the moment an under-trial or convicted person leaves the Central Prisons building until they return. There will be full monitoring of who accompanies them, whom they meet, and what happens, in order to prevent this phenomenon.”
