Turkish Cypriot teachers back in court over case of ‘battering’ police

A total of 22 Turkish Cypriot teachers appeared in court in northern Nicosia on Thursday in the latest hearing of a case into an alleged “battering” of police officers during a protest.

Charges were brought against the teachers last November and relate to a protest which took place in August 2022 outside the north’s ‘education ministry’ building.

On Thursday, the prosecution insisted on taking the case forward, but with judicial recess in the north now imminent, the next hearing will not take place until September 25, more than two years after the protest.

Speaking after the hearing, teacher Hasan Sarpten urged the prosecutor’s office to “review its insistence on the case”, describing the case as “contrary to the natural flow of life”.

“If 22 people had actually pushed and battered two police officers, the outcome would have been much different to what it actually was, and dire,” he said.

He had said after a previous hearing that teachers had in fact been “subjected to police violence” at the protest and added that the case symbolised a “fascist mentality which dominates this country”.