NICOSIA - Cyprus on Friday condemned the detention of a Cypriot MEP at a sovereign British military base on the island after he was arrested during an official visit by a European parliament delegation.
British bases police intercepted a mini-bus carrying a delegation of nine Euro MPs to the south coast air base on Thursday, boarding the bus to arrest Marios Matsakis and taking him away in handcuffs.
"He is being detained in police custody to appear in court on May 15," British military spokesman Dennis Barnes told AFP after the arrest during the delegation's visit to a controversial antenna site at RAF Akrotiri.
"However he would be released on 500 pounds (1,166 dollars, 862 euros) bail if he chooses to pay it."
Government spokesman Christodoulos Pashardes said "strong protests" had been made to Britain over the arrest which Cyprus condemned, demanding his "immediate release."
British military authorities said Matsakis -- a well known anti-bases campaigner -- had failed to pay his bail after being released by a bases court last year on criminal damage charges.
In April 2006, Matsakis allegedly sprayed graffiti on military vehicles and bases property.
In court on Thursday he refused to pay the outstanding 300 pounds (700 dollars, 517 euros) bail, plus a 200-pound (466-dollar, 345-euro) non-payment penalty, saying he did not recognise the bases court.
The judge said Matsakis should remain in custody until bail was paid or until the next hearing.
But Dutch MEP Johannes Blokland, who led the European delegation, called the arrest "unacceptable" and "shocking."
At a briefing in Brussels, European Commission spokesman Michael Mann presented the dispute as a bilateral issue, as the Commission tried to keep out of the row between two member states.
"Military bases are different from other parts of the European Union apparently , I am not a lawyer," he told reporters, suggesting that military bases do not form part of EU territory.
Matsakis's young son and his partner Jacqueline Grivas visited him on Friday after he was flown by army helicopter from Akrotiri to a prison at Dhekelia garrison on the southeast coast.
"We have seen Marios, and he's not in very good shape and stressed, and outraged at his illegal arrest and transfer by helicopter," Grivas said.
Dhekelia assistant police chief Nicos Pantechis said Matsakis, a pathologist by profession, had threatened to go on hunger strike. "He's been seen by a doctor and is in good health, but what will happen next I don't know," he said.
The British military said Matsakis was moved to "more comfortable surroundings" equipped for longer-term detainees.
Barnes said there was the possibility of bringing the trial forward, but witnesses have since left Cyprus and are thought to be serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos said Nicosia doubted the authority of British bases courts to try and convict Cypriots.
"The bases always support the position that they have their own laws, courts and legal decisions," he said. "We question the jurisdiction of these courts, but this issue should be fought through the court and not by gestures."
Matsakis has campaigned to get the British military to leave Cyprus and has been arrested several times. In 2001 his arrest for protesting against Akrotiri's giant alleged "spy antennas" sparked Greek Cypriot riots on the base.
Britain has had military bases on Cyprus, where some 10,000 military personnel and their families are stationed, since the Mediterranean island's independence in 1960.
04/13/2007 14:28 GMT