By Martin Hellicar
A LIMASSOL police officer yesterday told the Assizes court that a colleague had given false testimony against a member of the force charged with the murder of Hambis Aeroporos.
Nicos Meitanis, appearing as a defence witness, described how a prosecution witness, officer Frangescos Frangescou, had admitted to him that he had lied in a statement he gave about the movements of Christos Symianos after the December 16 gangland hit.
Officer Symianos, 35, and special constable Savvas Ioannou, alias Kinezos, 33, deny charges of gunning down 36-year-old Aeroporos outside Limassol.
Frangescou has testified before the Criminal court, convening in Nicosia, that Symianos and another man — whom he did not recognise — had appeared on his doorstep shortly after the killing and asked to be driven to the Castle hotel.
But Meitanis yesterday told the court that Frangescou had broken down and confessed to him that the original statement he gave police — on which his court-room testimony was based — was fabricated.
Meitanis recounted how he and colleague Pericles Christodoulou visited Frangescou at his home in Limassol less than a week after the killing. Frangescou had taken sick leave at the time, Meitanis said.
“When he saw me he started crying. I asked him what was wrong, and his exact words were: ‘Haven’t you heard anything yet, I went and gave a statement concerning the Aeroporos murder and they forced me to write lies,'” the witness said.
“I said to him: ‘An educated person like you and you wrote lies in such a serious case?'” the officer told the court.
“He replied: ‘They promised me promotion and I was persuaded’.”
The officer said Christodoulou and Frangescou’s wife also witnessed the confession.
Christodoulou, who took the stand as a defence witness after Meitanis, backed up his colleague’s account of Frangescou’s tearful admission.
When he took the witness stand last week, Symianos claimed Frangescou’s testimony against him was false.
Waiter Prokopis Prokopiou, 35, has admitted to being one of the three hooded hit-men who killed Hambis Aeroporos. When making his dramatic court-room confession earlier this year, Prokopiou said Symianos and Kinezos were innocent. But the court has decided there is a case for Symianos and Kinezos to answer.
Charges against the other two accused in the high-profile murder trial were dropped last week after the Supreme Court ruled key evidence against them was inadmissible.
Cabaret owner Sotiris Athinis, 43, and his 51-year-old sister Zoe Alexandrou, a hospital cleaner, had denied charges of conspiring to murder Hambis.
Hambis Aeroporos was gunned down in broad daylight as he drove into Limassol from the town’s new hospital in the Ypsonas area. His murder is believed to be part of a gangland turf war for control of the cabaret circuit — thought to be a front for prostitution and gambling rackets.
The murder trial was moved to Nicosia for fear of gangland reprisals against the suspects. Armed police are out in force for every hearing. The trial continues.
