By Elias Hazou
THE DISPUTE between the Mesa Yitonia church committee and Limassol bishopric yesterday reached a new head, with accusations of forgery and calls for a House of Representatives inquiry into the matter.
The conflict is over a plot of land which was sold in April 1997 to the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) by the Limassol bishopric for £1.4 million. The money from the sale was deposited at the Lombard Natwest bank on the island. According to ecclesiastical procedure, the property’s transfer was co-signed by the Limassol bishopric and the Mesa Yitonia parish church committee.
But members of the parish have said that the transaction was carried out without their consent. The former chairman of the Mesa Yitonia committee, Takis Demetriou, said that the committee was bypassed and that the bishopric alone went ahead with the sale. He also claimed that until this week the committee had not seen a single cent of the £1.4 million.
Demetriou, a layman, was dismissed on Monday as chairman of the Mesa Yitonia committee by the bishopric after accusations of fraudulent handling of the committee’s accounts in 1996, when he served as treasurer. He has been replaced by a cleric, Father Michael.
The Limassol bishopric was quick to deny Demetriou’s allegations, saying bank documents indicated the money from the sale had gone into an account entitled ‘Limassol bishopric’ with a footnote referring to ‘Ayios Prodromos (Mesa Yitonia) church committee’. A spokesman for the bishopric also said that part of the money from the sale had recently been transferred to the committee’s co-operative bank, and that this week the whole amount had been transferred.
The EAC has also denied Demetriou’s allegations, and in an announcement said that the contract for the land purchase carried the bishopric’s signature, the signature of the chairman of the church committee, and the committee’s seal.
On Friday Demetriou said the committee had no seal of its own, and that therefore this was clearly a case of forgery. Yesterday he gave a statement to police on these allegations.
The bishopric’s accountant, Savvas Theklos, said yesterday that he had personally signed the contract, having temporarily replaced Demetriou as the committee’s chairman because Demetriou was opposed to the sale at the time.
Meanwhile other questions have been raised regarding the controversial transaction. Speaking to reporters this week, the newly-appointed chairman of the church committee, Father Michael, applauded Bishop Chrysanthos for carrying out the transaction, since the land’s real value had been estimated at some £500,000, while it was actually sold for £1.4 million. He suggested that the profits from the deal would go towards helping the finances of the parish.
This prompted a flurry of speculation, with Disy MP Demetris Syllouris yesterday calling on the House to launch an inquiry into expenditure by government and semi-public organisations.
The EAC, meanwhile, has said that the land’s value had been estimated by financial experts, and that it was willing to provide documentation to the committee recently appointed by the Holy Synod to investigate Chrysanthos’ alleged involvement in shady business dealings.
The cleric has already been described as a “suspect” by Attorney-general Alecos Markides in a $3.7 million scam originating in Britain.
Justice Minister Nicos Koshis has said that police investigators will travel abroad to collect more evidence on other cases with which the bishop’s name has been linked.
