Our View: Desecrated grave should never have become a chance for political exploitation

THE DESECRATION of Tassos Papadopoulos’ grave and the theft of his remains last week was a vile and abhorrent act which society condemned with all its might. This was an unprecedented act that shocked everyone and sparked feelings of rage. Never before in the turbulent history of the island had anyone committed grave robbery, which, admittedly, is not common crime anywhere in the world.
Inevitably, everyone seems to be asking the same question – what was the motive of the grave-robbers? Was it the work of people with sick minds who wanted to cause grief and pain to the family of the late president? Was it an act of provocation, as President Christofias suggested, but then, who would have been the target of the provocation? Some press reports speculated that this could have been the work of grave-robbers after money from the Papadopoulos family.
The police do not seem anywhere near to providing an answer, although according to the police spokesman all information given by people was investigated and several individuals were taken in for questioning. Secrecy has surrounded police investigations for obvious reasons – nobody knows if investigators had any evidence to guide them or were working in the dark.
Under the circumstances, the attempts to politicise the crime, just a few hours after the news broke, were cheap and cynical. We are not referring to the brief statement issued by the Papadopoulos family who were under tremendous emotional strain and may have felt that an expression of defiance was the best answer to the criminals.
But we would have expected the former associates of the former president to have exercised some restraint instead of seizing the opportunity to make political capital out of the issue. The claim that the criminals who dug up the grave wanted to destroy the legacy of Papadopoulos and weaken the resistance of the Greek Cypriot was unadulterated nonsense. There was not a shred of evidence to support the absurd theory advanced by former Foreign Minister Giorgos Lillikas and seconded by former spokesman Vasilis Palmas.
As if it were not bad enough to stir public emotions against those who opposed the late president’s policies, Lillikas and Palmas then had the audacity to call for a show of restraint and calm, the former also stressing the need for unity – all this was cynical political exploitation. Why would unity be threatened by a criminal act that every single person in Cyprus abhorred and condemned?
Everyone hopes that the loathsome perpetrators of this crime will eventually be caught and put on trial and for Papadopoulos’ remains to be returned to their resting place. This is the real gist of a matter which should never have become an issue of cheap political exploitation. Once the mystery is solved, Lillikas and company can embark on their political theories. 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.