THE MEMBERS of a new parole board were sworn in yesterday, 11 months after the previous board’s tenure expired, leaving dozens of convicts hanging because there was nobody to examine their applications.
Chairman and former judge Philippos Charalambous, and members Giorgos Demetriades, Evaggelos Anastasiou, Giorgos Mavrolefteros and Marios Argyrou were sworn in at the Presidential Palace in the presence of President Nicos Anastasiades.
“I can definitely say that this is a very delicate (task) because approving or rejecting any application for parole entails many social consequences not just for the imprisoned applicant and his family, but specifically (and) to a larger extent for our small society,” Charalambous said.
Back in November the justice ministry was forced to inform parliament they could find no replacements for the parole board whose previous members, citing other obligations, passed on another term.
The new board’s task will be to start reviewing dozens of pending applications, made before and after the dissolution of the previous – and first – board and including six lifers who have been waiting for their case to be reviewed.
“It is the state’s moral obligation in protecting human rights to adopt and implement the institution of the parole board,” Anastasiades said yesterday.
“(The parole board) is the only institution providing for the periodic examination of convicts’ long-term imprisonment, particularly that of lifers,” Anastasiades said. It aims to re-integrate convicts in society, preparing them to be active members of society, he added.
Convicted persons serving a life imprisonment in Cyprus are jailed for the remainder of their lives. The parole board was set up in 2010 to offer convicts a chance of early release after a lifer challenged the system at the European Court of Human Rights.
Until then, only the attorney-general or the President of the Republic could authorise early release of prisoners.
To qualify, convicts who have been given more than two years to serve, need to have completed half their sentence. Lifers need to serve at least 12 years, and those serving successive sentences need to complete 25 years.
Supported by parole officers supervising released convicts, the parole board may set a number of conditions to authorise early release, including banning parolees from leaving the country, and having them regularly report to police. The board also takes into account the crime committed, the convict’s behaviour and court comments.
President Nicos Anastasiades speaks at the podium during the swearing-in of the new board pictured on the right