“Cops, pigs, murderers”, “Cops, you are heathens” and “The people want all ten of them in prison”, are just a few of the chants shouted out by hundreds of protestors, who headed off from Eleftheria Square, passed through busy Makarios Avenue in central Nicosia and reached Lykavitos Police Station, where they sat in the middle of the road and continued shouting in protest of the decision.
Outside the station, protestors hung a string of bananas – a reference to civilian movement Alertcy’s claims of a banana state.
Trouble brewed when an irritated policemen threw the bananas back into the crowd, but was averted when the father of one of the students – Dr Ioannis Papageorgiou – stepped in between the officers and protestors to calm scene.
“I am especially pleased about the huge number of people present here today,” Papageorgiou told reporters. “It seems the people have indeed been sensitised to the problems that occupy our society. This problem is not a personal matter, at the end of the day, but a problem that our society is facing as a whole.”
He added, “If we are doing something about this today, for me personally, this is not about revenge, but it’s for all these youths that circulate the streets at nights, who must feel safe.”
Papageorgiou said this should be the last of this kind of demonstration until the appeal case has reached the Supreme Court.
The procession ended back at Eleftheria Square, where protestors painted a red circle in the middle of the road, to signify police terrorism.
By Jacqueline Theodoulou, Cyprus Mail, March 29, 2009
