Maronite spy to be sentenced on Saturday

A MARONITE man found guilty of spying for Turkish intelligence will be sentenced by the criminal court on July 5.

Avgoustinos Skoullou, 53, from occupied Kormakitis, faces a 10-year jail term for smuggling military secrets to the Turks.

In finding the accused guilty (on two counts of spying), the court rejected claims by the Maronite that he fed Turkish intelligence false information about National Guard weapons and installations.

Skoullou had been under surveillance for some months before he was arrested at the Ledra Palace checkpoint on January 14 after a four-page document (in English) detailing National Guard weapons systems was found in his possession.

The Cyprus Intelligence Service (KYP) was keeping tabs on Skoullou since September last year, when he was seen acting suspiciously outside army camps in the dead of night.

To ward off suspicions, Skoullou carried with him a hunting rifle, but intelligence officers noticed he never fired a shot.

The accused is the second Maronite man to be found guilty of spying for the Turks this year. George Josephides, 44, was jailed for six years by the criminal court in May.

Josephides was found guilty on four counts of spying against the republic and two counts of passing on information to Turkish army officers in the north.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.