Up in Arms Over Police-Issued Guns 'To Go'

Reuters

[tarawa]

Up in Arms Over Police-Issued Guns 'To Go' Fri May 31,11:13 AM ET

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Want a gun? In Cyprus it is as simple as going down to your local police station and being sworn in as a so-called special constable.

At least, that is the general impression of a public inundated by reports this week that people ranging from businessmen to pimps have been issued a police pistol and been authorized to arrest and detain others on the pretext that their lives are at risk.

Attorney-General Alecos Markides has said the practice is an abuse of power which has rumbled on unnoticed for decades. "It should stop being applied and all appointments of special constables should be revoked," he said.

An annoyed President Glafcos Clerides has had made it clear he wants police to curb the practice, a political source said. He has summoned police chief Andreas Angelides to explain the appointments.

"People who want licenses to carry a weapon now need to go to the justice ministry and to the cabinet. In order to bypass that process police made these guys special constables instead. Clerides won't have it," the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Disclosures have snowballed since customs authorities accidentally stumbled across a pistol at the home of a Nicosia businessman in mid-May.

The businessman's home was searched as part of an inquiry by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) into cigarette smuggling. It was later revealed the individual had been appointed a special constable last year.

Further inquiries showed that around 100 other prominent members of society were permitted to carry a gun as special constables, circumventing normal channels of approval from the justice ministry and the cabinet.

Special constables generally have similar duties to normal police officers.

Police chief Angelides has defended the force. Any critics, he said in a statement this week, were guided by ulterior motives and were acting in a "conspiratorial manner."