Indicator history

The only recording of racially motivated crimes is carried out by a special unit of the police, the Police Bureau for Combating Discrimination, a greatly understaffed and underresourced department which is at the same time mandated with several other responsibilities. The recording mechanism for racial incidents was set up in 2005. The data it records are not publicly availble but can be made availabe, at the police's discretion, upon request. Between 2005-2009 the unit recorded 37 racial incidents: two in 2005, 18 in 2006, three in 2007, six in 2008 and eight in 2009. The unit itself recognises that the the figures are an underestimation of the true picture and that often they have to prioritise between the monitoring and recording of racial indicents and other pressing responsibilities of their mandate e.g. child abuse (Source: RAXEN Thematic Study 'Racist and Related Hate Crimes in Cyprus' written in September 2010 for the FRA).

For the year 2005 (two incidents), one of the two incidents involved an alleged attack by a member of the police against a migrant TV actor from Benin. This is the only incident recorded by the mechanism which involves a member of the police force. This incident was recorded upon the recommendation of the Ombudsman. The other incident recorded for this year was the attack against a Turkish Cypriots by a member of the ultra nationalist organisation Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) who at the same incident attacked also a person from Romania and a person from Greece who were in the company of the Turkish Cypriot. The perpetrator was criminally prosecuted but was acquitted by the Court who found that he was acting in self defence.

For 2006 (18 incidents) the victims included persons from Iran, Greece, USA and Turkish Cypriots. The reason for the high number of incidents during 2006 in relation to other years was the repeated incidents by the same offender who on fifteen separate occasions inflicted malicious damage to cars of Greek high ranking army officials parked in public spaces because he considered them responsible for the military operations against Cyprus in 1974. [Note: It is rather odd that these incidents were recorded as racially motivated, when it is clear that the perpetrator was acting out of political convictions rather than racist motivation. He was targeting property belonging to military officials and not to Greek civilians in general.] The perpetrator was charged with malicious damage to property and was convicted. The other case recording this year was the attack against Turkish Cypriot students at the English School by a group of hooded far right youth. The perpetrators were charged with various offences unrelated to racism and were convicted.

For the year 2007 (three incidents), the victims were a Turkish man of Kurdish origin, a Turkish Cypriot man and a Bangladeshi man. The perpetrators in the first two cases were a Cypriot male and a Georgian male. The perpetrator in the third case has not been found. The first two cases concern violence against the person and the third was destruction of property.

For the year 2008 (six incidents), one case concerned violence against a person, one case concerned violence against both person and property and four cases concerned violence against property.

For the year 2009 (eight incidents), four cases concerned violence against the person, four cases concerned violence against property, one case concerned both violence against person and property. Out of the total, three incidents included also threats and abusive behaviour.

Over the period 2005-2009 breakdown offered by the police is as follows: (The total does not add up to 37 as some of the incidents extend to more than one classification of the categories of incidents)

• Thirteen instances of violence against the person;
• Twenty four instances of violence against property;
• Four instances of verbal threats and abusive behaviour – including harassment and hate speech;
• No Racist, xenophobic publications – including internet based;
• No Extremist offences or offenders.