Missing computer hampers probe into ‘fascist’ granddad

AUTHORITIES have not yet concluded an investigation into a senior civil servant accused of posting a video on the internet in which he urged his four-year-old grandson to shout fascist remarks, the Cyprus Mail has learned.

The official, who serves with the civil defence, allegedly posted the one-minute video on social networking site Facebook in November last year.

A government official told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the man denies uploading the video and claims somebody else had posted it on his Facebook profile.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said police were also having difficulties because the man’s computer has gone missing.

Due to this, investigators had to find as many of his Facebook friends as possible to verify that it was his profile and that he had in fact posted the offending footage.

However, it appeared that many people were willing to speak against him, the official said.

The grandfather, who has been suspended, continues to receive two-thirds of his salary.

The video showed the boy wielding what looked like a fake gun, while being prompted by his grandfather to shout fascist remarks such as “long live the junta”, in reference to the Greek junta that ruled Greece and instigated the 1974 coup in Cyprus, which led to the Turkish invasion.

The footage shows the child being asked repeatedly whom he will shoot, until he responds: “Turks and Communists.”

The boy then shouts “bam bam” while pretending to shoot something in front of him.

Pleased with the responses the grandfather says “well done my boy, my Greek boy.”

On the wall in the background, hangs a framed poster bearing the junta’s emblem – a silhouette of a soldier with a rifle and a phoenix emerging from flames.

The junta ruled Greece with an iron fist between 1967 and 1974.