There are approximately 75,000 TRNC citizens who hold criminal records.
Lawyer Muhabbet Mevsimler states that the Criminal Record Clearing Act was passed in 2012 and allows for the deletion of criminal records relating to a specific list of crimes.
This list excludes the most serious crimes such as murder and rape but does cover other crimes including robbery, drug use, counterfeiting etc.
Mr Mevsimler says that records to be deleted should be those which are dealt with in the lower courts where the penalty is a fine and there is no imprisonment involved. After a period of five years, criminal records in that category are scheduled to be deleted from all official records. However, this has not been done and can greatly influence applications for jobs where background checks are carried out.
