THE trial for the murder of media boss Andis Hadjicostis continued yesterday with the testimony of three key witnesses, including a housemaid who nearly came face to face with the culprit.
The other two witnesses were the victim’s neighbour, Michalis Koursaros, and the travel agent who issued the tickets to Moldova for one of the four main suspects in the case, 29-year-old Gregoris Xenofontos, who fled Cyprus just days after the murder.
First to testify was travel agent Savvas Papademetriou, who briefed the court on what happened the day Xenofontos purchased the tickets to Moldova.
According to Papademetriou, Xenofontos arrived at the travel agent’s on January 14 of this year – three days after Sigma Boss Hadjicostis was gunned down outside his home in Engomi, Nicosia – in a van, seeking two tickets to Moldova, for him and his wife.
Xenofontos, he added, had asked to depart “as soon as possible”.
Papademetriou booked the suspect and his Moldovan wife two return tickets to Moldova via Budapest for the following day.
The tickets, costing €1,060 each, were never used for Xenofontos’ return to Cyprus, as he was eventually arrested by the Moldovan authorities and extradited to Cyprus, where he joined the other three suspects – TV presenter Elena Skordelli, 42, her 37-year-old brother Tasos Krasopoulis and Andreas Georgiou, 33 – in remand.
The victim’s neighbour was next to take to the stand, saying he had been at home in his living room on the night of the murder, when he heard two loud noises.
Koursaros immediately opened his window and saw a person running away holding what looked like a 40-centimetre-long, three-centimetre-wide pipe in his right hand. The witness said he shouted to the fleeing person: “I saw you,” as he thought he was a hooligan playing with firecrackers.
When he shouted, Koursaros said the man in question turned to look at him; but he added that he couldn’t recognise his face as it was so dark.
“He was just wearing dark clothes and was running extremely fast,” Koursaros told the court.
Moments later, the witness heard cries coming from around 50 metres away, where the victim’s car was parked. It was then he saw Hadjicostis lying face up on the pavement, with his wife on top of him, crying and screaming.
Koursaros immediately called the police, which he said arrived in a matter of minutes and cordoned off the area.
Third but not least was the testimony of housemaid Nilda Mondecarlo, who works for a home near Hadjicostis’ family.
According to Mondecarlo, she had been out walking the family dog when she heard two gunshots and stopped in her tracks. At that time she had been near the pavement where Hadjicostis was murdered. Mondecarlo said she saw a man running towards her, as well as another man sitting on a motorbike waiting for the fleeing man.
She added that the runner was of medium build, with fat legs but his face was covered by a hood. Montecarlo said she didn’t see him holding anything in his hand, but witnessed him sitting on the back of the motorbike and both men fleeing in the direction of Vasilis Michaelides Avenue.
She then heard a woman screaming and crying. Scared, Montecarlo rushed home to tell her employer what she had seen.
Montecarlo and Koursaros where shown pictures of a man wearing a hooded top by the state prosecutor, who asked them if it was like the one the culprit had been wearing. Both witnesses agreed it did.
The trial will continue today.
