AG orders probe on statements by Morphou Bishop on gays

Attorney general Costas Clerides has ordered an investigation into whether statements by Morphou Bishop Neophytos constitute an offence.

In a written statement, Clerides said that he has written to police chief Kypros Michaelides asking police to investigate the Bishop’s remarks “on gays and related issues.”

Yesterday, Costas Gavriellides — a former president of Cyprus’ LGBTI NGO Accept and currently  an adviser to the president on multiculturalism, acceptance and respect for diversity, wrote to the attorney general asking him to look into the issue.

In his letter, Gavrielides had urged a change in legislation so that the launch of any legal proceedings for hate speech does not rest exclusively in the hands of a single body — the attorney general’s office.

To this comment, the attorney general countered that “before making such statements, it would be best for the adviser to the president knows at least the basic provisions of the constitution and respects its institutions.”

Bishop Neophytos has found himself in the eye of the storm after excerpts of his speech at Akaki on June 25 went viral. He argued that men become homosexual if their mothers enjoy anal sex when pregnant with them and claimed that gay men ’emit an odour’.

And he said it was hypocritical to mourn for the two children murdered by convicted serial killer Nicos Metaxas because of the high abortion rate in Cyprus.

Political parties have slammed the statements while government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou issued a written statement late on Tuesday saying the remarks violated the legally protected principle of equality of all citizens and should be retracted.

And in a written statement, Maria Stylianou Lottidou, Commissioner for Administration and Protection of Human Rights said the remarks were racist as they contained the elements of denigration and rejection.

Bishop Chrysostomos of Kyrenia also stepped into the controversy saying that members of the clergy have no place in couples’ bedrooms.

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Bishop of Kyrenia says clergy have no place in couples’ bedrooms amid outrage over Morphou Bishop’s remarks

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