Former MEP released by Turkish army after trial in north Cyprus

Former European member of parliament (MEP) Yiannakis Matsis and a Greek Cypriot refugee were released on Monday having spent two days in custody after a military court in the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus fined them for trespassing.
Matsis, who was accompanying a delegation of MEPs visiting the north to review the situation of destroyed cultural and religious sites, was arrested on Saturday and later hospitalised after feeling unwell. Loizos Afxentiou was told to remain in the occupied territories pending the outcome of his trial.
They were each fined 2,000 Turkish lira (1,260 dollars, 907 euros) for entering a military zone and not securing a permit from the Turkish occupation forces.
On Saturday morning, four MEPs accompanied by a group of observers went to the ghost-town of Varosha in occupied Famagusta, to inspect the damage of cultural heritage in the occupied territories.
The Turkish forces first arrested but later released Cyprus MEP Eleni Theocharous, Polish MEPs Jaroslaw Walesa and Artur Zasada, Bulgarian MEP Mariya Nedelcheva, the Bishop of Neapolis Porfyrios.
The president of the European People's Party Wilfred Martens had earlier condemned the arrest and called for their immediate release.
''I am astonished by this incident. The Turkish military forces do not have the right to arrest current and former European parliamentarians and other European citizens, who were there on a mission to examine the current state of religious monuments in the ghost-town of Famagusta'', Martens said in a statement issued on Monday.