Attorney-general called in on police sleaze claims

ALLEGATIONS that a high ranking police officer had dealings with gambling club and cabaret owners and often visited artistes continued to trouble deputies yesterday.

The claims first surfaced at Wednesday’s House Ad-hoc committee on crime.

Akel deputy Kikis Yiangou yesterday again demanded that the accused police officer be suspended from duty while an investigation was conducted by the Attorney-general.

Senior police officer, Stelios Parpas, had claimed before the committee that former Larnaca police chief, Andreas Minas, protected illegal gambling club and cabaret owners and was repeatedly seen by other officers being escorted by artistes.

Parpas further alleged that on one occasion Minas had been involved in an accident while driving a police car, and had abandoned the scene with his Romanian passenger. No report was filed on the accident and damage to the car was ignored.

The Committee’s chairman, Marcos Kyprianou, announced yesterday that the committee had sent a letter to the Attorney-general, calling for an investigation into claims by Parpas that a detailed report on Minas’ dealings and a video tape and photos showing him accompanying artistes had gone missing from police archives.

Deputy police chief Andreas Stephanou said the internal investigation begun by police last month would be completed within a week.

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