Parliament to overhaul century-old criminal code

The criminal code dating back to 1929 that still criminalises railway offences that Cyprus no longer possess and regulates how far a horse may protrude from a cart is facing a comprehensive overhaul, parliament heard on Wednesday. The House legal affairs committee discussed plans to modernise the criminal code, which contains 374 articles and still refers to the British colonial-era territory of the Indies and the former Cypriot pound. Ilias Stefanou, a criminal lawyer representing the bar association, said repeated attempts to update the legislation since 2000 had failed, despite two decades of work by committees of academics and judges. Although the code was consolidated in 1959, much of its wording dates back a century. Among its provisions are offences concerning railway infrastructure, despite Cyprus having no railway network, and restrictions on transporting horses in carts if parts of their bodies protrude. One of the most contentious provisions is Article 79, which makes it an offence to organise a Muslim wedding or circumcision celebration, own premises where such an event takes place, or hire or knowingly permit a dancer to perform. The article defines a dancer as a female prostitute or a woman paid to dance or sing at such celebrations, carrying a maximum penalty of one month’s imprisonment or a fine of £75. The committee was told that nobody had ever been convicted under the provision. The article came under scrutiny after a practising Muslim from Larnaca took a case to the European Court of Human Rights, having cancelled his daughter’s wedding when he discovered that the law prohibited him from hiring a female dancer. The case, Ziya v Cyprus, ended in September 2026 with a friendly settlement under which the man received €5,000 and the state committed to changing the law. The justice ministry has since submitted a bill to repeal Article 79. Committee chairwoman Fotini Tsiridou said parliament would pursue a wider initiative to modernise the criminal code, while the attorney-general has written to the justice minister proposing a review, which has received the minister’s support. Stefanou called for the entire code to be examined, pointing to inconsistencies in drug sentencing. Possession carries a maximum sentence of eight years, while drug use itself can attract life imprisonment. He also argued that proposals to increase the maximum sentence for causing a fatal road crash from four to ten years should form part of a comprehensive review rather than be introduced separately, particularly given the involvement of drugs and alcohol in road deaths.