Former Cyprus Finance Minister Dr Michael Sarris is one of the three men who have been arrested Members of the European Parliament are calling for the immediate release of three men in the Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus as police investigate them for 'conspiring to have sexual intercourse against the order of nature'. They are Former Cyprus Finance Minister Dr Michael Sarris and two other men above the age of consent, who were arrested in their private home. The offence police are investigating carries a penalty of up to 5 years’ imprisonment in the northern part Cyprus, the last territory in Europe where homosexuality is illegal. The European Parliament's Intergroup on LGBT Rights points out this is in breach of the binding European Convention on Human Rights, which applies to the territory. Cypriot Members of the European Parliament Eleni Theocharous and Ioannis Kasoulides are calling for the immediate release of the three men. “These arrests are in full breach of international law and the human right to private life. Charging them is illegal under human rights law, denies their most basic rights, and is wholly unnecessary as no harm was done. Consenting adults have the right to engage in sexual intercourse with people of the same sex, these men must be freed now.” Co-president of the Intergroup on LGBT Rights Michael Cashman says the men must be released without delay, "and the binding jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights must be implemented immediately in the whole island of Cyprus. The criminalisation of homosexuality has no place in the 21st century."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 20th October 2011 - 11:50am