British court allows group of Cypriot ex-liberty fighters to pursue torture case

NICOSIA, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- A British court in London has allowed a group of Cypriot anticolonial fighters to pursue a court case against the British government demanding compensation for torture about 60 years ago, one of the group said on Saturday.

The court case was filed by 34 elderly Greek Cypriots, who as young men were tortured by members of the British colonial military and administration when fighting a guerilla war for the liberation of the eastern Mediterranean island from 1955-1959.

The fighting came to be known as the EOKA (Greek acronym for the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle) uprising.

Cyprus became an independent state named Republic of Cyprus in 1960.

Thasos Sofocleous, the President of the EOKA Fighters Association, told Xinhua that the Royal Courts of Justice on Friday rejected an attempt by the British government to block the progress of the case by asking that the case be tried under Cypriot law.

That would mean that the case had to be thrown out as the Cypriot Law on limitation allows a case to be filed in court within a period of 35 years from the event. The British law is more flexible on limitation.

"The Court rejected the petition by the British government and said that the British law was applicable, as Cyprus did not even exist as a state at the time of the EOKA fighting," Sofocleous said.

"To its credit, the court said that the British state should not be allowed to escape liability and should be held to account for acts of violence against its citizens in its own courts and by its own law," Sofocleous added, quoting information from the group's lawyers.

The Greek Cypriots filed the case in 2015, after the British Foreign Office released documents in 2012 mentioning claims of torture and abuse during the EOKA insurgency.

"This is an important victory for us, but there is long way ahead before we are vindicated," Sofocleous said.

Kenyan Mau-Mau fighters who were also fighting the British some years before the Cypriot liberation struggle and had also been tortured have won a court case in which they were awarded several million of pounds sterling in compensation. Enditem