AS 2006 draws to a close, the Sunday Mail takes a look back at the major criminal stories, ranging from sleaze to black magic to cold blooded murder.
Holiday pupil murdered
ON AUGUST 18, Christos Michalakis Papiris, a 17-year-old high school student from Akaki village outside Nicosia, was killed when he was thrown from a moped after being struck by a rental car in the resort of Protaras in the early hours. The driver of the moped, 18-year-old Marios Demetriou, suffered a broken pelvis and other injuries. He recovered and later testified against the three Britons. Police have charged British nationals the driver of the car, Julian Harrington, 39 and his two nephews Luke Atkinson, 22, and Michael Binnington, 21 with committing an illegal act which led to the death of Papiris. They have also been charged with causing the grievous bodily harm of Demetriou in what is believed to have been a revenge attack. Harrington has pleaded guilty to the charges while the other two are pleading not guilty. The trial continues.
Father kills son with hoe
IN THE EARLY hours of July 21, nurse Christodoulos Charalambous, 50, delivered a fatal blow to his 21-year-old son Yiannos’ head with a hoe. Charalambous claims he acted in self-defence against his violent son, who was known among his family members and the police as an “explosive individual”. The trial had heard accounts of Yiannos’ violent behaviour from members of his own family, which included smashing furniture, demanding and obtaining with threats of violence cars, mobile phones, motorbikes and money and putting a knife to his father’s throat and threatening to kill him. The trial continues.
Ambassador in sexual harassment scandal
IN DECEMBER former Cypriot Ambassador to Sweden Costas Papadimas was found guilty of multiple charges of sexual harassment against secretaries Alexandra Zioga and Sofia Raptidou, during his term in Stockholm between 2001 and 2005. Papadimas denied any wrongdoing claiming that the two secretaries, as well as the Embassy diplomat, were conspiring against him. The former Ambassador is claiming that Zioga was his mistress who turned on him when he wouldn’t take her to Brussels with him when he was set to be transferred.
Abducted, raped and murdered
ON AUGUST 17, 20-year-old Janka Kovacova from disappeared outside the Grecian Bay hotel in Ayia Napa where she had been employed since June. On September 4, Panayiotis Netzadi, 31, broke down and confessed he had abducted, raped and murdered the young woman. He later took police to where he had buried her body in a shallow grave in the Dhali industrial area. Due to the advanced decomposition of the Slovakian woman’s body, Janka was unidentifiable. The trial continues at the Larnaca Criminal Court.
Butchered wife and lover
ON AUGUST 1, Christoforos Charalambous, 29, is believed to have stabbed 45-year-old Yiannos Demosthenous 38 times in the back with a kitchen knife. Police believe Demosthenous was killed because he was having an affair with the suspect’s wife, 30-year-old Anna Vasileva from Kyrgyzstan. Police later found the skeletal remains of his wife inside a metal barrel in an isolated area outside the mountain village of Askas. He denies killing them. Officers believe that Charalambous snapped when he found out that his wife planned to leave him to go and live with Demosthenous. Initially Charalambous claimed his wife had escaped to the north, but then reportedly cracked under questioning, telling police he would lead them to the spot where the woman’s body was. But in a bizarre twist, Charalambous denies killing his estranged wife, saying she had asked to be cremated. His trial continues.
Superintendent guilty of indecent assault
ON NOVEMBER 10, a police superintendent was found guilty of indecently assaulting a female constable during a New Year’s Eve party at a police station back in 2002. Upon realising that Judge Lemonia Kaoutzani would find him guilty, Charalambos Voutounos, 56, broke into a deep sweat, fell back into his chair and began shaking. He soon recovered and was given permission to remain seated as the judge concluded. Voutounos, who had since been given a senior position at the Coast Guard in Limassol, had been the officer in charge at Paphos Gate Police Station in Nicosia on the night in question when he grabbed Constable Maria Lambrou by the neck, forced her head towards his and kissed her on the lips, saying “I really fancy you. Why don’t we go out together and whatever happens, happens?” During his time on the force, Voutounos served as bodyguard under three Presidents. He was fined £1,000.
‘Can’t find the inmate’
ON AUGUST 24, a Polish national made headline news after police officers couldn’t locate him inside the Nicosia Central prisons. Jan Andruskow, 45, had pleaded guilty to beating his wife severely around the face and body before tying up her hands and leaving her naked on their bed for two days because she had been drinking and had not made his lunch. During the trial, Judge Angelos David said he was “stunned” to read two letters, sent from the Chief Officer of the Welfare Services, informing him that following a visit to the Nicosia Central Prison, social workers “were not able to see the defendant because guards couldn’t find him anywhere after searching for 45 minutes”. According to the letter, one guard informed the social worker that “maybe his is sleeping or doesn’t want to see you”. A baffled Andruskow told the court, “I cannot understand why the guards couldn’t find me. I was in prison, where could I have been?” He was later jailed for four months.
Black magic and forgery
ON SEPTEMBER 25, Vera Georgiou, 39, was arrested on suspicion of fraud, sorcery and intention to conceal a crime. According to investigators, Georgiou had managed to defraud various people out of large sums of money, telling them she needed to perform spells to rid them of curses placed on them by other people. The Nicosia Court had heard how Georgiou had managed to swindle £496,000 from a female bank clerk between May 2005 and July 2006. She was later remanded again after fresh evidence suggested the woman had swindled two men in Nicosia out of £18,000 and some furniture. That same week, 68-year-old Hariye Rezvanoglu pleaded not guilty to conning a man from Acropolis in Nicosia by telling him that he had been cursed and she could cure him for £500. Both cases are set to go to trial.
Refugee property trial
ON NOVEMBER 24, a Russian woman was charged in a Nicosia Court with illegally purchasing a Greek Cypriot property in the Turkish occupied north of the island. Elena Merkushova, 30, had been arrested at the Ledra Palace checkpoint in Nicosia along with her husband, after customs officers discovered a title deed and contract of purchase for a property in the occupied area of Lapithos. According to police, Merkushova bought the house, which is built on land belonging to four Greek Cypriot refugees who fled to the south in 1974. She has pleaded not guilty to the two charges against her. If found guilty of the charge, under a law passed on October 20 this year, Merkushova could face up to seven years’ imprisonment.
Archbishopric scandal
TWO MEN working at the Archbishopric have been charged with 14 charges, including forgery, circulating falsified documents, theft, obtaining money under false pretences, concealment and conspiracy to commit a crime. The trial revolves around separate instances where the Archbishopric paid £592,000 for the purchase of four tracts of land in Nicosia and Paphos. It was later discovered, according to State Prosecutor Rikkos Mappourides, that the money actually received by the sellers amounted to £305,000 – a shortfall of £287,000. The two men on trial, Iosif Demetriou Aristodemou, a close relative and one-time chauffeur of former Archbishop Chrysostomos, and Chrysostomos Philippou, chief accountant at the Archbishopric, are accused of stea
ling vast amounts of money from the Church by forging the former Archbishop’s initials and handwriting.
Another accountant, Elias Demetriou, committed suicide a few days after being questioned by detectives in connection with the case in December 2003. Both men have pleaded not guilty and the trial continues.
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