ESCAPED convict Antonis Prokopiou Kitas, more commonly known as Al Capone, was yesterday still at large, with police no closer to arresting him.
Investigators yesterday continued to comb Stasicratous Street in the heart of Nicosia searching for clues regarding the December 12 incident.
Two suspects are in custody, including Kitas’ 32-year-old accomplice Ioannis Menikou and his 28-year-old Chinese wife.
Menikou was remanded in custody for eight days, while Kitas’ wife was remanded for two. The pair was arrested for conspiring to commit a felony and aiding and abetting a convict’s escape.
During the duo’s remand hearing on Sunday, the court heard how the 42-year-old rapist and murderer had carried out criminal activities from his private Nicosia hospital room.
CID officer Neophytos Shaelos told the court that in the convict’s hospital room, investigators had found the names of people against whom crimes had been committed or who had been threatened in the recent past. He said Kitas appeared to be directly involved with these activities.
The court also heard that Kitas did not only plan the crimes, but also helped execute them.
Shaelos said the Criminal Investigation Department had a written statement according to which a person living near Stasicratous Street had received a warning that Kitas was going to rob him. This raises questions regarding police’s original statement that the reason three patrol cars had happened to be in the area during the early hours of December 12 was because they had received a tip-off regarding a drug deal.
Some reports said police had been aware of Kitas night time activities and actually used him as an informant. Authorities have denied there is any truth to the rumour, and said Kitas’ presence on the night in question was pure chance.
Twelve days ago, the convict slipped out of his hospital room window just before 2am. Shortly afterwards, he was involved in a shootout with police on Stasicratous Street. Kitas and three other people, one of whom was Menikou, sped off in an unknown direction. The getaway car was later found abandoned in Potamia village. The 42-year-old, who was jailed for life in 1994 for the rapes and murders of Oksana Lisna, 20, and Christina Ahfeldt, 28, has not been found since.
The court also heard that two Chinese men posing as Kitas’ brothers-in-law often came to visit him. The guards allowed the men into the convict’s room on instructions from his wife. Apparently one of the two is the fourth person who was in the getaway vehicle. Until now the fourth person’s identity has eluded police.
During Sunday’s hearing, two out of five criminal investigators were present in court. The two are said to have spoken to the lifer’s wife and to Menikou. They also asked for information from CID investigators.
Meanwhile, the Cyprus Medical Association yesterday issued a statement that it would wait for the conclusion of the criminal investigation to determine whether there were grounds for disciplinary action against any doctors. The Association said if there was any incriminating evidence against any medics, it would not support a cover up or ask for leniency. It also said the fact that two Medical Councils had reached two opposite conclusions regarding Kitas’ medical treatment was normal. The Association said medicine was not an exact science and that different opinions were often desirable and inevitable.
