African woman racially maltreated by Greek Cypriot police after she was assaulted by a group of individuals in Nicosia

A Somali woman and her husband have alleged inhumane and racist treatment by Greek Cypriot police in an incident that unfolded in central Nicosia on the night of Tuesday November 12.

Kamga Kengne, 31, a Cameroon national was expecting his wife, Hobo, a Somali national to return by bus from a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday evening, when he received a call from his brother-in-law that she had been beaten on the street and held for hours in a cell at the Nicosia central police station.

According to Kengne, his wife and her brother had entered a coffee shop in downtown Nicosia, where he had asked to use the toilet.

The employee had rudely refused and told them to get out, despite Hobo’s pleas on her brother’s behalf.

When Hobo allegedly questioned the employee’s insulting behaviour the latter called on two patrons sitting outside to help get rid of the pair.

The situation escalated from there, with Hobo and her brother getting beaten while the police were called to the scene.

Instead of arresting the attackers, the police took Hobo by car to the station and held her for four hours without water and without providing any first aid for her injuries, Kengne said, as well as calling her i mavri (the black) instead of by her name.

She was finally released while it is alleged that the perpetrators suffered no consequences.

Kengne has sent letters about the incident to various authorities and human rights watchdogs on behalf of his wife.

“My wife already suffered from depression and her mental health has taken a severe downturn after this,” Kengne, who is co-parent to the couple’s three children, said.

“How can you leave someone bloody in a cell for hours without help? What kind of police is this?”

On Friday, it was reported that a case has been filed with the independent police complaints authority regarding the matter.

Head of migrant and refugee watchdog Kisa, Doros Polykarpou, speaking to CyBC, accused authorities of dragging their heels in investigating the complaint.

Polykarpou said the woman had been taken in and held by police after she was attacked under the assumption she was drunk, although as she explained she is a practising Muslim.

Instead of helping her calm down as the victim of an attack, the police chose to take the word of two Greek Cypriots at the scene [the alleged attackers] and talk in Greek, he said.

“We have tried to speak for two days with the police in an earnest effort to make sure all the facts were known by them, and we encountered a wall,” Polykarpou added.

According to Kisa, the woman’s case has been handled badly even after she visited the hospital with her husband the next day, whereupon the treating doctor certified her injuries as a result of violence, and counselled her to get a referral for investigation of the perpetrators.

The officers at the police station simply took the paper from the doctor and told her it was “sufficient”, Polykarpou said.

Moreover, when Kisa rang the station in an effort to clarify information for the couple, the station’s officers told the NGO they ought to “get a lawyer involved” if they had a problem and questioned Kisa’s getting in touch.

Eventually the station’s chief assured Kisa that the incident had been looked into and handled, and that the couple could return to file a report about the attack.

However, once Kisa informed the couple and they returned to the station, they were told that the station was understaffed, and they would be notified on Saturday if they should come again.

“This is not an isolated incident, we have the similar situation in Limassol and other reports where victims will contact the police and get no result and are not treated with dignity and the requisite attention,” Polykarpou said.