A COVERT operation by Turkish commandos to abduct Panayiotis Netzadi soon after his arrest was foiled by increased security around the convicted felon, if press reports were to be believed yesterday.
According to Simerini, police received a tip-off last year that a plan was in the works to “liberate” Netzadi from the custody of Greek Cypriot police.
In August of this year, Turkish Cypriot Netzadi was sentenced to life imprisonment after having been found guilty of the kidnapping, rape and murder of 20-year-old Janka Kovacova last summer.
Upon being told that he would be in jail for life, Netzadi had mockingly clapped his hands and shouted, “I am free as a bird, not a fool in a cage.”
Eight days ago he and Odysseas Kalanides, a fellow inmate, broke out of Nicosia’s Central Prisons.
Both were apprehended by Turkish Cypriot authorities in the buffer zone. Kalanides has been returned to the south, but Netzadi remains in the north, where he faces charges of desertion.
Soon after the escape, reports emerged that Netzadi was also wanted by the north on suspicion of espionage against the breakaway regime for the benefit of the south.
And Simerini yesterday quoted deputy police chief Andreas Paphitis as confirming that last year police had received information that Turkish commandos were planning to wrest Netzadi, who at the time was being detained pending his arraignment.
Paphitis said the police deemed this information to be reliable and acted swiftly to beef up security around Netzadi.
He reasoned that the heightened security may have thwarted the Turkish designs.
Moreover, the paper said that upon Netzadi’s transfer to the Central Prisons, police had warned prison authorities to be extra vigilant, as the Turkish Cypriot was resourceful and would escape given half a chance.
In the wake of the bold jailbreak and the glaring lapses in security, the government has sacked its chief prison warden and launched disciplinary proceedings against seven guards.
In a related development, staff at the prisons yesterday agreed to put off a strike in protest at their working conditions.
They say that over-crowding in the prisons poses safety and health hazards.
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