A protest march in Limassol on Saturday afternoon ended with multiple injuries and ten arrests, as participants spoke of police brutality.
The protest started as a march against high rents on Anexartisias Street around 5 p.m.
A group of around 20 protesters then headed towards the Limassol Crime Investigation Department (CID) building, where they shouted slogans demanding a fair investigation into the circumstances of a police operation that ended with the death of Bangladeshi immigrant Anisur Rahman, on April 10.
Scuffles ensued between protesters and police, who said people showed aggression towards the officers, who moved to break up the gathering.
Participants in the protest disputed this, describing the clash as an “unprovoked attack”.
“After the protest on high rents ended, we moved towards Limassol CID. We were standing peacefully on the pavement when police charged towards us,” a protester told in-cyprus on condition of anonymity.
“They (the police) were chasing us for 600-700 metres and threw verbal abuse at us, threatening to beat us up,” he added.
Two of his friends were taken to hospital with bruises, he noted.
Another protester, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he was injured after an officer tripped him during the chase.
According to the Police, the Limassol Crime Prevention Office head was injured during the unrest and was taken to the city’s General Hospital.
This was the third protest over the death of Rahman, as two marches were held in Limassol on April 13 and in Nicosia on April 20.
Case background
Early on Wednesday, April 10, officers raided an apartment on the fifth floor of a building in Limassol, acting on a tip about undocumented migrants living there.
Two men, both foreign nationals, attempted to escape, jumping from the window.
The fall killed 19-year-old Anisur Rahman, a worker from Bangladesh, while the other man suffered severe injuries, leading to his hospitalisation.
Police said that two officers from the Aliens and Immigration unit entered the apartment after knocking on the door and obtaining the consent of the residents.
This account has been disputed in a statement given to in-cyprus and philenews by K.S., a person who was living in the apartment and was an eyewitness to the police raid, who noted “On Wednesday there were 15 people without uniforms, they broke the door in the morning and punched the person standing next to the door. Then they punched another person”.
K.S. also said that the flatmates were forced to sign voluntary return requests.
Anti-racist organisation KISA has also questioned the version of events offered by the police over the raid, referring to eyewitnesses stating that the police entered forcefully into the apartment without the occupants’ consent.
The Independent Authority for the Investigation of Allegations and Complaints Against the Police (IAIACAP) has appointed two criminal investigators to examine the circumstances surrounding Rahman’s death.
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