By Martin Hellicar
ARMED police were out in force at the Nicosia courts yesterday as the Hambis Aeroporos murder trial resumed after a long break.
But there was no sign of a swift conclusion to the high-profile case, with the three-judge bench of the criminal court forced to sit through hours of technical testimony for the prosecution. State prosecutor Petros Clerides asked a Telecommunications Authority (CyTA) expert to go through the whole procedure for local telephone exchange systems. The detailed account was a precursor to Clerides trying to establish that two of the suspected killers had repeatedly contacted each other by mobile phone in the hours before the December 16 murder.
After well over an hour of the expert witness’s testimony, the judges’ patience dissipated as a flustered court clerk failed to find, in a cardboard box of prosecution evidence, a mobile phone card that the prosecution wanted to present as an exhibit.
The judges called a recess to resume the grinding testimony half an hour later.
The trial has already been a long-winded affair, with several trials-within- trials on the admissibility of prosecution evidence stalling the hearing. Police have mounted a heavy security operation for the hearings, fearful of possible reprisals against the five suspects.
Five persons are charged with involvement in the brutal murder of 36-year- old Hambis Aeroporos outside Limassol in December, a suspected gangland hit.
One of them, waiter Prokopis Prokopiou, 35, has admitted before the court that he was involved in the shooting. He made the surprise confession after originally pleading not guilty to murder charges, standing up to tell the court that he was tired of the whole hearing procedure and wanted to bring an end to it by admitting his guilt. Prokopiou also said the two policemen on trial alongside him were innocent.
Policeman Christos Symianos, 35, and special constable Savvas Ioannou, alias Kinezos, 33, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Aeroporos.
Prokopiou is to be sentenced at a later date. He has been excused from obligatory attendance of the trial and yesterday chose his cell at the Nicosia prison over the courtroom.
Police say Prokopiou, Symianos and Kinezos were the hit-men who gunned Hambis down in broad daylight.
The other two suspects are hospital cleaner Zoe Alexandrou, 51, and her brother — 43-year-old cabaret owner Sotiris Athinis. They have denied charges of conspiring to murder Aeroporos.
On September 5, Athinis — who has been released on bail — was lucky to escape with his life when an anti-tank missile was fired at him as he entered his cabaret in Limassol. Four men are being held in connection with the attack.
Police believe the attack was part of an ongoing gangland feud between rival underworld clans vying for control of the cabaret circuit — thought to be a front for drugs and prostitution rings. Hambis and Athinis are said to belong to rival gangs.
Hambis is believed to be the victim of a vendetta that has cost the lives of over a dozen suspected underworld figures — including his younger brother Andros — in recent years.
