BY A close vote, parliament last night passed a law on combating terrorism and defining a terrorist organization.
The bill passed with 22 votes in favour from DISY, DIKO and European Party deputies, while 19 MPs from AKEL and socialists EDEK voted against. The Greens abstained.
The law specifies what constitutes a terrorist group according to the definition and list of terrorist organisations compiled by the European Council. It also stipulates terrorist offences and subsequent penalties.
It defines a terrorist group as “a group of two or more persons which has been established and operates for a specific amount of time with the purpose of committing terrorist acts.”
I just can’t help the mental picture of the heated arguments over the definition.
- “It’s not the group of two or more! It’s a group of more than one!”
- “Period of time, not the amount!”
- “Now let’s vote on the purpose versus goal”
- “Is it terrorist acts or acts of terrorism?”
And so on and so forth…