The Criminal Code Cap. 154 and The Criminal Procedure Act Cap. 155 are considered to be the core legislations, governing the regulation of criminal justice.
Cap 154 contains the definitions, details, and punishments for various kinds of offenses whereas Cap.155 lays down the procedures to be followed during the arrests, investigations, proceedings etc. Owing to its roots in the common law, Cyprus criminal system follows some of the fundamental common law principles like the right to a proper trial, accused’s right to be heard, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty etc.

Constituents of a Crime

To prove a crime two of the most essential things that need to be established are:

• Actus Reus: A guilty act, meaning an offense is committed
• Mens Rea: A guilty mind, meaning it is committed with full understanding and intent towards the said act
  Failing to prove even one of the aforementioned results in failure to prove that an offense was committed. So, even if an offense can be easily proved to have been committed, sometimes even prima facie; if it cannot be proved that the offender possessed full knowledge about the nature of his act, its consequences, or simply a guilty mind, then the accused cannot be convicted.

Defences

Even when the above constituents are proven an accused still has the chance to not be held guilty and escape conviction if they are able to provide a reasonable and probable defence. Some of the common defences include self-defence, provocation, consent of the injured party for the injuring act, commission of the offense under duress or coercion, involuntary commission of the said act without any control over the functioning of their own body, involuntary intoxication, mistake of fact, insanity. One of the other defences is that of being a minor as children under the age of 14 years cannot be held criminally responsible as they are believed to not have the element of mens-rea just by the virtue of their age, regardless of the nature of the crime.

Courts and Jurisdictions

Not being humungous in size Cyprus doesn’t need many levels of courts. The three main courts having criminal jurisdiction are the District courts, Assize courts and the highest court of the country, the Supreme court. Assize courts though can try all criminal cases, however, in practice, only cases involving offenses punishable with more than 5 years imprisonment tried by the assize courts. All cases involving offenses punishable with up to 5 years imprisonment are tried by the district courts. There are five assize courts located at Nicosia, Paphos, Larnaca, and Limassol.