JUSTICE Minister Kypros Chrysostomides yesterday resigned over last week’s escape of convicted double rapist and murderer Antonis Prokopiou Kitas, better known as Al Capone, from a private Nicosia hospital.
Shortly after leaving yesterday’s Cabinet meeting, Chrysostomides said he had informed President Demetris Christofias that his already submitted resignation was still valid and that he insisted on it.
This time, the president accepted his resignation.
Chrysostomides’ action was welcomed by deputies, particularly opposition DISY vice president Ionas Nicolaou, who said the former minister had shown “heightened political sensitivity and courage”.
The AKEL minister first submitted his resignation last Friday when news of Kitas’ early morning flight first broke. The move was initially seen as a formality, common in the wake of a scandal, with Christofias’ subsequent rejection of his minister’s resignation predictable.
But yesterday’s resubmission of his resignation and the president’s acceptance of it came as a surprise to everyone, including close ministry associates.
“The President of the Republic has accepted my resignation,” Chrysostomides told reporters on leaving the Cabinet meeting.
Thanking the president for their co-operation in government, he said he would always be at the state’s disposal as “an active citizen”.
Chrysostomides added: “Some had hastened to draw conclusions. I made statements immediately after Kitas’ escape. I said some things. I avoided making further statements for obvious reasons.”
He said it was now up to the Council of Ministers to take the right decisions for a full investigation of the facts leading up to Kitas’ escape, and to oversee the appointment of the necessary investigative body.
Chrysostomides said the issue was extremely serious and no one should undermine its severity, nor should it be handled lightly, nor efforts made to take advantage of the situation for political reasons, “as some people have done in the past few days”.
These people were “politicians of the opposition”, he said.
The comment was a clear dig at DISY vice president Ionas Nicolaou, who has been vociferous over the debacle.
But Nicolaou denied any political manoeuvring and said he had never sought to take political advantage of Kitas’ escape. He added his criticisms had only ever been political and never personal, and that his concern was not only felt by him but by society in general.
The handling of Kitas’ hospitalisation during his incarceration brought to light the carelessness and negligence involved, and Chrysostomides had rightly taken responsibility for his role, Nicolaou said.
Nevertheless he said he would continue to demand answers to his questions, including a full explanation of what really happened.
“This is a very serious matter that will not be resolved with the Justice Minister’s resignation,” said Nicolaou.
The DISY deputy said the appointment of a criminal investigator was needed, who would examine the matter in its entirety and apportion responsibility where it was due, including in the police force and central prisons.
Chrysostomides said he had told the Cabinet everything he knew, from leaked information to what had become known in the past three or four days from his own internal investigations into the issue.
However, he stopped short of holding the police and Central Prisons responsible.
“Both are institutional state organs that operate based on the laws and regulations, and in light of the facts there should be co-operation between them to clear up the issue,” Chrysostomides said.
Meanwhile deputies discussing the 2009 State Budget yesterday also paused to make reference to the Justice Minister’s decision.
AKEL minister Aristophanes Georgiou said this was the first time a minister had taken political responsibility, while DISY deputy Christos Stylianides said his resignation should have been expected from the go and had been what the people demanded.
EDEK said nowhere before had a convict of Kitas’ significance escaped prison and that Chrysostomides’ resignation honoured him as a man.
DIKO and EVROKO also welcomed the move, and said it had been the right thing to do.
Kitas was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1994 for the brutal rapes and murders of Oksana Lisna, 20, and Christina Ahfeldt, 28.
