By Martin Hellicar
THE HAMBIS Aeroporos murder hearing entered the legalistic quagmire of its fourth “trial-within-a-trial” yesterday, with the defence once again challenging the admissibility of prosecution evidence.
The lawyer for one of the five accused argued that information stored in the memory of a mobile phone found in the car abandoned by the hit-men at the scene of the December 16 gangland hit could not be used as evidence in the trial.
State prosecutor Petros Clerides had asked witness Angelos Tengeris — a mobile phone expert — to turn on the device and read out from its memory the numbers of the phones used to contact the device in the hours before the killing. Clerides is trying to prove to the court that the accused conspired by phone.
But George Georgiou, for the defence, told the Nicosia criminal court that the prosecution had failed to show that the device had been used systematically or was in proper working order at the crucial time. In the absence of such testimony, the information stored in the mobile phone could not, constitutionally, be admitted as evidence, Georgiou stated.
Georgiou is defending hospital cleaner Zoe Alexandrou, who, along with her brother — Limassol cabaret owner Sotiris Athinis, 43 — is charged with conspiring to kill Hambis. Alexandrou, 51, has admitted the phone found at the scene of the crime is hers, but both she and her brother deny the conspiracy charges.
Georgiou also argued that the prosecution would have to produce evidence that the whole telephone system was functioning normally on December 16.
He also put it to the three-judge bench that anything Tengeris read from the screen of his client’s mobile phone would be hearsay, and thus unacceptable as evidence.
“If the prosecution witness were a typewriter technician would he be able to appear before the court to read a text typed in his absence and which he was seeing for the first time?” the defence lawyer argued.
The prosecution asked for time to prepare its reply to Georgiou’s arguments. The court set the next hearing for Tuesday, further postponing a trial that has been ongoing for almost three months now.
The defence has thrice previously challenged the admissibility of prosecution evidence, forcing side-trials. The court overruled the defence objections each time, but the delays to trial progress had a part to play in the surprise confession of one of the accused hit-men, waiter Prokopis Prokopiou, 35.
A few weeks into the trial, Prokopiou stood up to tell the court that he was tired of the long-drawn out procedure, and wanted to admit that he had pulled the trigger on 36-year-old Hambis. He also said the two policemen on trial along-side him were innocent.
Policeman Christos Symianos, 35, and special constable Savvas Ioannou, alias Kinezos, 33, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Aeroporos.
Prokopiou is to be sentenced at a later date.
Three hooded hit-men gunned Hambis down in broad daylight as he drove home from the Limassol hospital where he was receiving routine treatment for wounds suffered during an earlier suspected gangland hit, in June 1995.
Hambis’ murder is thought to be part of an ongoing turf war between rival underworld gangs vying for control of lucrative gambling, prostitution and drugs rackets.
The bloody feud shows no sign of letting up. Twelve days ago, trial suspect Athinis, who is free on bail, was lucky to survive an anti-tank missile attack outside his Limassol cabaret. Four men are being held in connection with the attack.
Hambis’s younger brother, Andros, 32, was gunned down outside Limassol’s Show Palace cabaret in July 1998.
Just eight weeks earlier, Aeroporos brothers Hambis, Andros and Panicos, 26, had been acquitted of the May 1997 attempted murder of Larnaca gambling club owner Antonis Fanieros.
The Hambis murder trial was moved to Nicosia for fear of reprisals against the suspects. Armed police are out in force for every hearing.
