Former convict pleads not guilty to attempted murder

A former convict who fired against police officers who wanted to arrest him pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges on Thursday and asked to be released pending his trial.
Andreas Onoufriou, 63, had been on the run for five days before he was located and apprehended in Lagia, Larnaca, in late April.
Police had tried to arrest Onoufriou a few days earlier at his apartment in Limassol.
Acting on a tip, officers went to the house looking for firearms.
Armed with a G3 assault rifle, the same type issued by the National Guard, Onoufriou fired at the officers and fled the scene.
He also opened fire at members of the counter-terrorism unit before his arrest at Lagia.
Officers fired shots in the air to force Onoufriou to stop running.
Police also arrested two other men, suspected of helping Onoufriou while on the run.
Onoufriou faces 21 charges including attempted murder, possession of a firearm, and possession of explosives and ammunition.
The suspect, who appeared without a lawyer, objected to remaining in detention until the trial starts on Tuesday.
He argued that he had to look after his four-year-old son, his pregnant fiancée, and his mother, 80.
Onoufriou said many years have passed since his conviction and that his only concern now was his son, whom, he claimed, had been examined by a child psychologist and was in need of his father’s presence.
The gunfight at Lagia took place in the presence of Onoufriou’s son who had been taken from the care of the convict’s mother and two sisters.
The former convict claimed that police were trying to put him in jail and that it was the officers who fired against him in Lagia and not vice versa.
The court will decide on Friday whether to release Onoufriou.
His two co-defendants – the 62-year-old owner of the shed where the fugitive was located, and another man, 60, who owned a hunting shotgun found in Onoufriou’s possession — were released after being charged.
They also denied the charges.
Onoufriou was sentenced to 18 years in jail in 1996 for the attempted murder of a judge in Limassol.
In 2012 he was named in a plot to murder then attorney-general Petros Clerides but the charges were later dropped.

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