Shame, again and again. Why does this state of bribes, corruption, intertwining interests, grabbing, deceit, still have an 82-year-old man imprisoned since March by the authorities?
He was transferred to the hospital for the third time yesterday. Suffering from chest pains, high blood pressure, mentally and physically exhausted.
A man whom the President of the Republic announced would grant a presidential pardon as soon as he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, yet he remains in his cell.
Shame, again and again. Why did the President remain silent when he found a way to appease public sentiment and ended the uproar by announcing the presidential pardon? He found no way to implement his decision.
As if the “presidential pardon” was only for show.
Shame. Why does this state of fraudsters, which failed to bring to justice any of those who caused the biggest economic disaster since the invasion, exhaust the letter of the law against an 82-year-old grandfather?
Who we found alone in a village in Alassa, facing continuous robberies. And they imprisoned him when he fired his hunting rifle to confront the thieves by himself.
Who were stealing the cables supplying electricity to his home right in front of him.
They are waiting, they say, for the decision of the Court of Appeals. They’ve been waiting since April 10. But an 82-year-old man, who had never dealt with the law in his life, counts the hours in a cell, and it feels like ages.
His heart is breaking. His soul turns pitch black. His mind, his conscience, his body, endure at this age the greatest cruelty he has ever experienced. And the officials of the country, who when it comes to serving each other, they can fit through the eye of a needle, now can’t find a way to relieve him from this ordeal.
Really, who bears the guilt? No one.
Absolute indifference reigns alongside absolute corruption. And incompetence. Who bears the guilt, for example, of Kenan Ayas? A Kurdish politician to whom we offered protection for ten years, after the torture he endured in Turkish prisons, was here and bothered no one, had no actions that caught the attention of the police, yet suddenly we handed him over as a terrorist and he has been imprisoned for almost a year in Hamburg.
In miserable conditions and a disgraceful trial, which will last many more months without any evidence against him. We had him imprisoned ourselves since March 15, 2023, because Turkey labeled him a terrorist, not because he is a terrorist.
Turkey! And this state didn’t dare to say that Turkey is the terrorist and not a Kurdish refugee who fights for the freedom of his people.
Who bears the guilt? No one. Everyone has a clear conscience.
Just like they do for 82-year-old Chrysanthos from Alassa, because they believe they applied the letter of the law and did their duty. I am ashamed on their behalf. They neither feel shame nor bend.
We ask for a lot, you’ll say. Well, yes, in a state where everyone acknowledges how absurd it is to have officials with multiple pensions, yet can’t find a way to correct this absurdity.
They invite parliamentary parties to a meeting to find a solution but don’t invite the Auditor General who highlighted the issue, and neither the Finance Minister nor the Director-General attend the meeting.
In a state that values a project in Larnaca at €1.2 billion to a foreign company but can’t enforce that the work will be done. And another project in Vasiliko worth €500 million, but still isn’t finished.
And another in Paphos worth just a hundred million, but even here, we have a problem because they struggle with the tunnel…
We are just a village, and they can’t manage it. At the very least, they should show some respect to the people.
