| Basic information | Substance of the ruling | Accessibility of the case and further relevant links | |||||||
| Date | Name of the case (or case number) | The body delivering the decision | Keywords, topic | Executive part | Brief summary | Full text | Page at the website of the issuing court | Page in other databases | Unofficial materials, press communications |
| September 26. 2022. | CY:AD:2022:D365; Civil application No. 147/2022 | Supreme Court of Cyprus | Freedom of movement; criminal law | The Supreme Court of Cyprus annulled an European arrest warrant issued against a Greek national who showed willingness to cooperate with the Cypriot authorities but was unable to travel to Cyprus reportedly due to the public health restrictions. | A Greek citizen charged in Cyprus with committing various crimes requested the annullation of an European arrest warrant issued against him by a district court in Cyprus. The Greek citizen showed willingness to cooperate with the Cypriot authorities and offered a virtual hearing as a testimony because he was unable to travel to Cyprus reportedly due to the public health restrictions. Despite this offer, the Nicosia District Court issued the European arrest warrant. The Supreme Court agreed with the applicant and found his claim reasonable, therefore, the Nicosia District Court was ordered to annull the European arrest warrant. | https://www.cylaw.org/cgi-bin/open.pl?file=apofaseis/aad/meros_1/2022/1-202209-147-22PolAit.htm&qstring=%F7%E1%F1%F4%2A%20and%202022 | https://fra.europa.eu/en/caselaw-reference/cyprus-supreme-court-first-instance-jurisdiction-civil-application-no-1472022 | ||
| October 5. 2021. | Supreme Court of Cyprus | Separation of powers | The Supreme Court of Cyprus held that a law imposing eviction moratorium during the public health emergency infringed separation of powers, therefore, it was unconstitutional. | The President of the republic challenged a law before the Supreme Court of Cyprus imposing eviction moratorium on lessors during the public health emergency. The Supreme Court upheld the claim and annulled the law as unconstitutional because it infringed the principle of separation of powers. Although the law aimed at protecting rights of vulnerable social groups, it constituted an undue interference into the judicial competence to review individual eviction cases, therefore, the law was unconstitutional. |
https://vrikislegal.com/cyprus-eviction-moratorium-deemed-to-be-unconstitutional/; https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2023-07/flash_news_special_edition-1-2022_en.pdf |
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| 11 August 2020 | No. 96/2020 | Supreme Court of Cyprus | Claim rejected | The Applicants have filed this application to the Supreme Court of Cyprus in order to issue the prerogative writ of certiorari. This writ purposed the annulment of the decision of the District Court of Famagusta, date 31/07/2020, which was issued in relation to Criminal Case No. 2275/2020 concerning the possible violation of COVID-19 related regulations in the operation of food service businesses, including restaurants. According to the Applicants, the aforementioned decision forced them to defend themselves against certain criminal offenses which, in their opinion, did not exist and they did not commit, founding their legal argumentation on the fundamental legal principle nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege. The Court has examined the conditions upon which a writ of certiorari could be issued. In this context, it has been supported that this specific power of the Supreme Court must be exercised in exceptional circumstances and it must not in any case circumvent the ordinary appeal procedure which served this purpose. It has then been concluded that these conditions have not been fulfilled in this case, as the applicants still had the chance to use the ordinary appeal procedure to question the findings of the Court of First Instance, i.e. whether the alleged criminal offenses existed or not. | http://www.cylaw.org/cgi-bin/open.pl?file=apofaseis/aad/meros_1/2020/1-202008-96-20PolAit.htm&qstring=covid- | https://www.covid19litigation.org/case-index/cyprus-supreme-court-cyprus-no-962020-2020-08-11 | |||
| 31 July 2020 | Antoniou v. Police | Supreme Court of Cyprus | Claim partially upheld | A Cypriot citizen violated the national lockdown that was in place during March 2020 in order to stop the spread of the Covid-19 over the island of Cyprus. More specifically, the man was stopped/detained as he was driving his car to visit his girlfriend without having in his possession the necessary certification, to be able to be excluded from the prohibition of movement during the lockdown. The police arrested accordingly the Defendant/Appellant who violated the Infection Law related to measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. First, regarding the conviction of the Defendant/Appellant by the Court of first instance, it was held that any movement in violation of the respective regulations of the regulatory act constituted a criminal offence, under Article 7 of the Infection Law (Cap 260) and was punishable by imprisonment for up to six months or even a fine. Concerning the second ground of appeal, the Supreme Court ruled that imprisonment was the last resort choice for punishment. It was imposed only where any other punishment would undoubtedly be inappropriate and insufficient. Imprisonment was not inevitable in this case. All in all, the part of the present appeal related to the conviction was rejected, whereas, the decision of the Court of first instance concerning the sentence imposed, i.e., the imprisonment for 45 days, was overruled, with the appeal succeeding in this direction. | http://www.cylaw.org/cgi-bin/open.pl?file=apofaseis/aad/meros_2/2020/2-202007-74-202.htm&qstring=covid | https://www.covid19litigation.org/case-index/cyprus-supreme-court-cyprus-antoniou-v-police-2020-07-31 | |||