Lifer marries prison doctor

IT WOULD seem that true love can overcome the social, and other, difficulties that being ‘on the inside’ poses. Christos Symianos, currently serving a life sentence for murder, recently married the prison doctor who regularly visited due to long-term health problems.

The marriage took place in the prison grounds in the presence of a priest and best man. Symianos had served 10 years of his sentence – with a few months break – when the marriage took place, according to Alithia newspaper.

The break taken in the middle of his sentence came about after a recommendation by Attorney General Petros Clerides to then President Tassos Papadopoulos who signed an application for suspension of his sentence. The break was necessary to allow Symianos to take a trip abroad to undergo emergency surgery.

Symianos was convicted on December, 17 1998, aged 37, for the murder of Hambis Aeroporou from Kolossi. Limassol criminal court ordered that he be imprisoned for life.

Two other individuals were also convicted for the same murder, Savvas Ioannou and Prokopis Prokopiou. Both were sentenced to life in prison, though Prokopiou was later granted a Presidential pardon on account of severe health problems.

Likewise, it was on account of health problems that Symianou made frequent visits to the prison doctor, which allowed them to fall in love and, eventually, get married.

Prison authorities said that the matter was personal and they had no comment to make.

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.