By Martin Banks - 19th October 2011
These men must be released without delay
Michael Cashman
A group of MEPs have reacted with dismay after it was revealed that police in the Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus arrested three gay men in their home on "trumped up" charges.
The men face charges of 'conspiring to have a sexual intercourse against the order of nature'.
The offence in northern Cyprus, which remains outside the EU, carries a penalty of up to five years' imprisonment.
Former Cyprus finance minister Michael Sarris and two other men above the age of consent may face charges under the criminal code in the northern part of Cyprus, which is the last territory in Europe where homosexuality is illegal.
Campaigners say this is in breach of the binding European convention on human rights, which also applies to the territory, and that the charges have been "trumped up".
Cypriot MEPs Eleni Theocharous and Ioannis Kasoulides have now called for the immediate release of the three men.
In a joint statement, they said, "These arrests are in full breach of international law and the human right to private life.
"Charging them is illegal under human rights law, denies their most basic rights, and is wholly unnecessary as no harm was done.
"Consenting adults have the right to engage in sexual intercourse with people of the same sex, these men must be freed now."
Their comments were echoed by UK Socialist deputy Michael Cashman, co-president of the intergroup on LGBT rights in parliament.
Cashman added: "These men must be released without delay, and the binding jurisprudence from the European Court of Human Rights must be implemented immediately in the whole island of Cyprus.
"The criminalisation of homosexuality has no place in the 21st century."
A spokesman for the LGBT intergroup said it urges Turkish authorities in Cyprus to release the three men and clear them of all charges without delay.
