Miracle relatives arrested in north

A GREEK Cypriot father and daughter were due before court in the occupied north yesterday for allegedly stealing religious books from the north and taking them south.

Andreas and Niki Violari were arrested on Sunday while crossing over to the north for prayers at the Apostle Barnabas monastery.

Niki is the fiancée of Marios Stylianou, the man who claimed a miracle had occurred when he got up from his wheelchair for the first time in a year while at the monastery two months ago.

The alleged miracle happened on the feast day of the Apostle Barnabas, when Stylianou visited the grave of the saint in the grounds of the monastery near occupied Famagusta.

The paralysed 40-year-old arrived at the grave and within minutes stood up and began walking, with the help of people accompanying him. The whole incident was captured on television cameras.

His fiancée and father-in-law were making their way back to the monastery to give thanks for the miracle when Turkish Cypriot ‘police’ arrested them on Sunday morning and held them in a Nicosia jail. Arrest warrants were issued for the pair after they failed to turn up in court last Friday on charges of stealing religious books from the north and transporting them to the free areas. The latest court hearing was scheduled for yesterday.