Vergas’ brother charged and released (Update 2)

Former Paphos Mayor Savvas Vergas’ brother Charalambos was arrested just after midnight in connection with threatening a Politis journalist.

Charalambos Vergas was arrested at 12.40am despite denying the accusations claiming the journalist verbally attacked him.

He was charged and released at around 10am on Saturday.

According to the reporter’s complaint, Charalambos Vergas issued threats and hurled expletives at him and his family following a chance encounter in a coffee-shop on Friday morning.

Nanos and two others had received threatening text messages on their mobile phones while a suspicious land-zoning case involving land-development powerhouse Aristo Developers was unfolding in Paphos.

Nanos had reported extensively on the case, and the other two had been key witnesses for the prosecution.

It later turned out that the texts had been sent by then-mayor Vergas’ assistant Maria Solomonidou, from a phone he had given her as a gift. Solomonidou had also sent Vergas a threatening text, ostensibly to muddy the waters and clear him of suspicion.

According to the complaint, Charalambos Vergas told Nanos “I will never forget – you will pay dearly”.

His brother, the former mayor is currently in jail after he was found guilty of bribery and corruption charges relating to the town’s sewerage construction project.

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.