Complaint submitted on 22 July 2011 by Iranian and other detained refugees in Larnaca, Cyprus detention center, regarding brutal

Cypriot police attacks against detained refugees on 12 July 2011. English translation follows. Letter provided by the Cyprus Refugee Rights Movement; translation to English by Mission Free Iran.

English translation of the complaint submitted on 22 July 2011 by Iranian and other detained refugees in Larnaca, Cyprus detention center, regarding brutal Cypriot police attacks against detained refugees on 12 July 2011. Subject: To file a complaint against the Deputy of Famagusta Detention in Larnaca City of Cyprus We kindly inform you that on 12th July 2011, the police visited the detention and forcibly and by beatings removed one of the detainees who has been held for the past 12 months in relation to his visa [with the intention of deporting him]. The other detainees protested against this act by the police throughout the whole detention center. The reason [for the protest] was that the person was not warned about the deportation, and his case was not attended to. After the protest by the detainees, who shouted and banged on the doors and the windows against the act of the police, the deputy of the detention center, accompanied by a large number of agents, all of them from the police, came to the entrance, threatened the detainees with firearms, and ordered them to stop the protest. Then, armed with batons and tasers and brass knuckles, the forcefully entered the detention center and beat on all the detainees. They did not even show mercy to a 72-year-old man by the name of Mr. B., who was a Baha'i and had complained to the European Court; he was also inside the detention for visa-related reasons. While beating on him, they shouted, "Why have you complained against the government of Cyprus!?" While beating on the others, the police continuously accused the detainees - Iranians and Arabs - for being involved in the explosion [editors note: this refers to the recent disastrous explosion of the Islamic Republics munitions on Cyprus]. They said, "Iranians and Arabs are not going to be helped in Cyprus. Either you leave our country or you will die in prison." As a result of the beatings by the police, a number of asylum-seekers had injured hands and legs. They were not taken to hospital. Later, the police collected all amenities, like food, sanitary items, and communications devices. The deputy of the detention center threatened that if anyone were to complain to organizations about what had happened, I, with the power invested in me, and the influence that I have in the government, will make legal problems for that person. I will plant falsified documents in your files and cause problems for you to get a visa - all of which is under my control." Now, 10 days has passed that date, and Mr. B and his son and wife, who had spent 4 months in the detention center waiting for their visa, were forcibly deported. None of the injured has been taken to hospital. They have told us, "Nobody is going to be taken to hospital unless they are dying." And the police have been ordered not to give anything in the way of amenities or communications devices to the detainees. We have been threatened that if we protest, we will be removed to detention centers with worse conditions. We have been threatened with having our files tampered with. We, the signatories of this letter, complain against this inhuman behavior of the police to the humanitarian organizations. We request that you provide oversight for our cases, and we inform you about the risks of us being dispersed to different facilities. We ask your honorable organizations to personally supervise our cases.

Best regards, Asylum-seekers in Famagusta Larnaca detention center, namely: 1. Mohammad Khosh Sorour 2. Mohsen Khosravan 3. Masoud Moghanizadeh Azari 4. Mostafa Hajilou 5. Mohammad Malek Madar 6. Zakariah Ebrahim Moj 7. Abdo Rasho 8. Loghman Hanan Ajijo 9. Shahed from Bangladesh 10. Ahmad Hosseini

Translation by Ahmad Fatemi and Maria Rohaly, Mission Free Iran