Police admit wrongful handling in Yioliti parody account shambles

A tense House human rights committee session took place Monday in the presence of the Justice Minister Emily Yioliti and the chief of police Stelios Papatheodorou, with Yioliti receiving fire from multiple fronts over the Twitter parody account shambles and the unprecedented police brutality that marked an anti-corruption protest on Saturday.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, members of the committee repeatedly demanded that Yioliti resigns.

Defending herself, Yioliti said that the complaint she filed against the Twitter parody account was for the protection of those close to her, and specifically of her father. Yioliti revealed that she had received death threats herself.

Papatheodorou however issued an eagerly-awaited admission of wrongdoing regarding the way police handled the Minister’s complaint, claiming that “the result is that we, as police, will be more careful from now on.”

Papatheodorou said that police did not request the advice of the Attorney General before taking any steps against the parody account, noting that “it would had been better if we had. I wish we had gone to the Attorney General, the instructions may have been different.”