Man remanded for Aradippou murder

A 22-YEAR-OLD charcoal maker was yesterday remanded in custody in connection with the murder of a Nicosia man whose body was found at the bottom of Aradippou dam on Monday.

Georgios Christodoulou, from Aradippou, outside Larnaca, was incriminated by bloodstains that police found in his car, senior CID officer Andreas Krokos told the Larnaca District Court yesterday morning.

Father-of-three Fotis Petrakides, 55, was shot dead with an automatic weapon sometime between his disappearance on Friday and Monday afternoon – when his body was found.

When he left his home in Engomi on Friday, the victim told his wife, Fani, he was going to his workplace – a factory at Lymbia in the Nicosia area – to pick up his boss and accompany him to the airport. He was not seen alive again.

Christodoulou had been arrested at about 1.45am yesterday, about two hours after police had released a Lymbia waiter arrested in connection with the murder on Tuesday. No evidence was found to incriminate the 25-year-old waiter.

Christodoulou’s three lawyers said their client had nothing to do with the killing, but had no objection to helping police with their enquiries.

Krokos told the court the suspect and the victim were “connected” and had been due to fly to Athens together on Sunday. He did not explain how the two men were connected.

Unconfirmed reports have suggested Petrakides, a former special policeman, had been working as an undercover police informant trying to bust a ring running drugs and guns from the occupied areas.

Christodoulou was remanded in custody for eight days.

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