Police step up anti-lambradjia checks, seize wood

The police have stepped up their crackdown on those intending to light Easter bonfires, known as “lambradjies”, with firewood being seized from various sites around the island.

They announced that they had uncovered amounts of firewood both in Limassol and in Nicosia, and that in both cases, local authorities were informed.

Local authorities in both cases confiscated the wood.

Lambradjies have been outlawed since last year, with a law passed by parliament 13 months ago providing for jail sentences of up to 12 years for those found guilty of lighting a lambradjia which later causes a forest fire.

The law allows local authorities to grant exceptions and thus allow for a lambradjia to be lit, but a bill aimed at clarifying this failed to pass through the House legal committee on the Wednesday before Easter last year.

A fresh attempt to regulate the matter was made by the government in November last year, but this failed to pass through parliament, losing a plenary vote by 28 votes to 10.