The government on Wednesday were given 15 days to give its final position on a bill which would establish the act of falsely filing accusations against police officers as a criminal offence.

The 15-day window was given to the justice ministry by the House legal committee as a new Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis has just been appointed.

Disy MP Nikos Georgiou, who proposed the move in the form of an amendment to existing legislation, explained at the committee meeting that the relevant bodies had agreed to the 15-day window.

“The bill aims at discouraging the phenomenon of filing non-existent complaints, which are filed to inconvenience and slander members of the police and put obstacles in the way of the police force’s smooth operations,” he said.

“Such false complaints are submitted solely for reasons of revenge against members of the force who may have participated in the prosecution or arrest of a suspect.”

Cyprus Police Association chairman Kyriacos Charalambous also spoke at the meeting, expressing his satisfaction with the bill and thanking Georgiou for submitting the bill.

“The criminalisation of false complaints against police officers is an urgent need,” he said, calling on Georgiou and the justice ministry to “not delay” the scheduling of meetings regarding the bill.

Also present at the meeting was trade union Isotita’s police department chairman Nikos Loizides, who said the justice ministry had “misled” the committee.

They said the ministry had “made allegations together with the legal service and the police’s leadership that they were trying to amend the law on ‘causing public harm’ and not the law on the police watchdog”.

He accused the ministry of deliberately delaying the amendment of the law by claiming that they are waiting for the new minister to submit his opinion on a bill which was drafted a long time ago.

“Our union will not allow anyone to persuade MPs to side … against ordinary policemen,” he said.