THE STATE prosecution yesterday cut a deal with the lawyers of the drugs squad officers charged in the trial concerning the December 2008, escape of convicted rapist and murderer Antonis Prokopiou Kitas from the Apollonion Hospital.
According to state broadcaster CyBC, the three officers pleaded guilty to a number of the 15 charges against them while charges against the remaining three police men facing trial were dropped. The six faced 15 charges in total, including abuse of power, failure to do their duty and concealing information.
Kitas – who was convicted to life after brutally raping and murdering two women in the 1990s – escaped from the private clinic, after being treated there for six months for gastric reflux. The justice minister and police chief at the time resigned as a result of the fiasco.
The three officers are former Drugs Squad chief Charalambos Ioannou and former deputy commanders Avraam Charalambous and Pantelis Polyviou.
The charges against sergeants Yiannos Yiannakou and Ioannis Ioannou, and constable Savvas Savva have been dropped.
Lawyers for the three officers yesterday agreed with the prosecution on the official turn of events which took place in December 2008. The lawyers will give their arguments in court next Friday regarding mitigating factors before sentencing.
According to the facts as accepted, the three officers with the agreement of the then police chief Iacovos Papacostas, prepared an operation based on information that Kitas would try to escape from the Apollonion hospital to commit a crime.
Drugs squad officers who were present during his escape, followed him to Stasicratous Street in Nicosia, where Kitas entered an apartment with two other people. The sting operation aimed to arrest them on their exit from the apartment. Things did not go as planned and Kitas escaped, going on the run for a number of weeks, leaving the drugs squad and police in general with egg on their faces.
One of the officers charged was continuously updating a member of the country’s secret service, the Central Intelligence Service (KYP).
Based on the accepted facts, post-escape, the police chief and senior officers held a meeting where it was decided that police would say they found Kitas on Stasicratous Street by chance after an anonymous tip off informed the drugs squad of a suspicious car in the area.
The false information was distributed in a written police statement, in statements made to the press, and in a briefing to the justice minister and attorney-general.
Following his escape, it transpired that Kitas was able to leave the hospital regularly at night to commit crimes, putting the spotlight even more on the activities and responsibilities of the drugs squad.
