The amendment of the legislation on breathalyzers and narco – tests for entry into sports venues, as well as the increase of the penalty of exclusion from sports venues for up to 10 years is among the measures announced on Wednesday by Minister of Justice and Public Order, Anna Koukkides-Procopiou for dealing with violence in stadiums.
At the same time, she announced the formation of a permanent anti-riot team, and said that she would meet next Friday with Sports Federations.
Speaking at a press conference regarding the decisions of the Cabinet on violence in sports venues, the Minister of Justice said that she gave instructions to the Chief of Police, in order to quickly proceed with the conduct of an administrative investigation on the actions or any mistakes or omissions in the operation of policing last Sunday’s basketball game.
Procopiou said that the Cabinet decided to take nine measures. The first is the formation and operation of a permanent anti-riot group under the Direct Action Response Team, with the sole task of policing sports or other high-risk events.
The second measure, is the amendment of the relevant legislation, in order to allow the breathalyzers and narco – tests, for the purposes of full implementation of the existing legislation that prohibits the entry into sports venues or the presence in areas adjacent to the sports venues, of drunk persons or persons under the influence of drugs.
Another measure is the intensification of body search of the sports fans by the Police to identify and confiscate illegal and dangerous objects.
The Cabinet also decided the intensification of controls and surveillance of the movement of organized fans by the Police.
It was also decided to install Closed-circuit television in all stadiums where first division matches take place, regardless of capacity.
The Minister also announced an amendment to the relevant legislation for the involvement of the Police in the control of the application of the fan card in sports venues.
?he government will also consider an amendment of the relevant legislation so that Police recommendations to a relevant Federation to ban the movement of fans will become binding.
Another measure, the Minister said, is the amendment of the relevant legislation to increase the penalty of exclusion from sports stadiums for up to 10 years.
Finally, another measure is the re-evaluation of financial or other state aid to sports associations.
Source: Cyprus News Agency