Opinion
By Martha Kehagias
It is difficult to comprehend how, in 2025, European citizens can be declared “not guilty” in a courtroom and yet remain unable to return to their homes, their identity cards confiscated, their freedom of movement suspended, and their basic human rights disregarded. Yet this is precisely what is happening in the occupied areas of Cyprus.
Earlier today, five Greek Cypriots were “acquitted” by a so-called “military court” in occupied Nicosia. The charges of “illegal entry” into a “military zone” and “aiding and abetting” collapsed after the “prosecution” failed to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Even the court itself acknowledged the glaring weaknesses in the investigation: no fingerprint checks, non-functioning cameras, and a lack of credible evidence. In any normal jurisdiction, this would have been the end of the matter. The accused would walk free, their documents returned, and justice, at least in its procedural form, would prevail.
But this is not a normal jurisdiction. The five acquitted individuals remain trapped in the occupied areas, unable to cross back to the Republic-controlled side. Their ID cards have been withheld “pending a possible appeal,” an appeal which, as of now, has not even been filed. The “prosecution” has given itself fourteen days to decide whether to contest an acquittal it failed to support with evidence in the first place. In the meantime, these individuals remain, effectively, in limbo.
Let us be clear: in any recognized state governed by the rule of law, once a person is acquitted, their freedom is immediate and unconditional. Their documents are returned, and they are free to go home. This is standard legal practice across Europe, in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. Only if an appeal is formally lodged, and only with a court order, can movement be restricted again. To detain or constrain someone after acquittal without a legal basis is an abuse of authority.
The occupied areas, however, operate outside international legality. The so-called “courts” and “prosecutors” answer not to any recognized constitution but to a de facto administration propped up by Ankara. The withholding of ID cards in this case is not merely a bureaucratic delay; it is a political act that exposes the fundamental illegitimacy of the system operating north of the Green Line.
This is not just about five Greek Cypriots. It is about the wider principle of justice and the rule of law in a divided country. How can anyone trust a process that declares people innocent yet refuses to let them leave? How can any European citizen accept that freedom of movement, a right guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, can be suspended at the whim of an unrecognized authority?
The Republic of Cyprus and international organizations must not treat this as a procedural technicality. It is a violation of fundamental human rights. These individuals were acquitted. They should be free today. Every hour their IDs remain confiscated is an hour of unlawful detention and humiliation.
