New remand for dam murder suspect

GEORGE Christodoulou Zarvantonas was yesterday re-remanded in custody in connection with the murder of father-of-three Fotis Petrakides on April 2.

Petrakides’s bullet-riddled body was pulled out of Aradippou dam in the Larnaca district on April 5.

Case investigator Andreas Krokos told the Larnaca District Court police would not be asking for another remand for Zarvantonas as the charge sheet was almost ready.

Twenty-two-year-old Zarvantonas, who has been held since his arrest on April 7, was remanded for another four days.

Krokos told the court two spent Kalashnikov cartridges found at the suspected murder scene at Koshi village had been matched with a gun located down a well near Aradippou on May 4 with the suspect’s help.

During an earlier remand hearing, the court heard that Christodoulou had vowed to “sort out” his alleged victim just days before the body was found.

The suspect is apparently refusing to make any statement to police.

His fiancée and prospective in-laws are being held on suspicion of providing him with a false alibi.

Unconfirmed reports suggest Petrakides, a 55-year-old former special policeman, had, at the time of his murder, been working as an undercover police informant trying to bust a ring smuggling drugs and guns from the north. An autopsy has showed he was shot five times.

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