Chief judge: Record rise in crime,

Cyprus Today: THE TRNC faces a record 51.26 per cent increase in crime and a shortage of court premises as it starts its new judicial year on Monday, revealed Chief Justice Narin Ferdi Şefik.

Highlighting the dramatic rise in law-breaking since last year, Ms Şefik said most cases centred around illegal drugtaking and trafficking, failure to monitor visitors to the country, and a lack of discipline on the roads — including issuing driving licences to 18year-olds after only 10 lessons, “thus virtually encouraging them to commit offences”.

She said a key factor underlying crime in the country was that while it was isolated from the world by embargoes, it had little production “but plenty of consumption”, a fact which was worsened by prices being tied to foreign currency despite the Turkish lira being the official currency.

“Problems in the TRNC are interconnected,” she said.

“Our country has no effective public sector and most of the population are not aware of their responsibilities.

“The main problems in the public sector include unqualified staff, their poor control and supervision, personnel being paid despite repeated absences and lack of a meritbased system. Even though these deficiencies have long been known, no effective steps have so far been taken to find remedies.”

Ms Şefik added: “Another problem is that members of the public pay no attention to rules. For example, people leave their cars in the middle of the road, at apartment entrances or where they are boxing in other cars, saying, ‘I’ll only be two minutes’. Such selfishness and disregard for rules is, unfortunately, increasing all the time.”

Highlighting “mistakes” in the allocation of funds for building courts and alterations or repairs to existing ones, she said that in addition to Lefkoşa, tenders for such work in Gazimağusa and Lefke remained unfinished “after constant delays”.

Despite the problems, she insisted the judiciary remained staunchly independent, free from interference by government or politicians.

“I have been a judge since 1987 and no-one has ever approached me to ask for a certain conclusion to a court case.

“I do not believe that such interference is taking place and I can also vouch for my judges in that regard.”