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They say that justice is blind, but in a civilized society the phrase refers to being right or fair and that there is no bias or prejudice as regards the persons and their roots, race, religion, political clout or wealth.
However, in Cyprus justice is blind in every sense of the word.
There is no justice when cases of minor and major corruption in the public sector keep on cropping up, almost on a daily basis, and no one is punished or let go from civil service, costing the taxpayer millions in squandered fees.
There is no justice when household name businesspeople write off bank loans thanks to friends in high places and no-one can force them to return the moneys, while SMEs and small loan holders face jail, simply because they are a couple of hundred or thousand euros behind in car payments, VAT, tax and social insurance.
There is no justice when a few lawyers are found to be involved in major swindles, causing irreparable damage to the good name of Cyprus that thousands of others have struggled so hard to build, and yet no one is disbarred from the legal profession.
There is no justice when lives are lost and souls are shattered due to negligence by private or public sector health officials, and yet no one loses a medical practicing license and some even retire from a public hospital only to be offered jobs in private clinics.
There is no justice when public personalities and leading politicians laugh in the face of very serious charges laid against them, simply because their big-shot lawyer has advised them that the prosecution “has no case”.
Justice is unequal and this has weakened our society. People have lost faith in the legal system and more so in our politicians.
The only way for the system to regain the public’s trust is for our courts to speed up procedures and to exercise swift justice. If lawyers know they can get away with any of their clients’ misdemeanour, simply by dragging a case to last for years, then they are setting a very poor example to the rest of the public.
Where there are cases of unfairness, a lesser workload for a judge or a public prosecutor will allow more time to properly review the case and pass a fair judgment.
With most cases ending up in the courts nowadays related to non-performing loans and property seizures, with middle-income families losing their hard-earned fortunes, society needs to look up to judges, the Attorney General, the Minister of Justice and the President as leading figures offering a glimmer of hope that ordinary citizens will not be forgotten.
By setting time consuming public hearings and appointing judicial panels, the public is being told “the culprit will never be tried” or that “the guilty party will get away with it.”
People want to hear that those really to blame and those who aided and abetted in a crime, will all face jail terms and once that begins, more should face trial, almost like a domino effect. Only then will the public regain trust in the system.
