ELENA Skordelli, a former TV presenter at Sigma, swore to make a comeback at the channel as a major shareholder on being given the sack in October 2008, the court heard yesterday in the ongoing trial for the murder of Andis Hadjicostis.
Testifying for the state prosecution, Sigma TV news chief Dinos Menelaou said Skordelli – a defendant and alleged mastermind behind the crime – resigned from Sigma in mid-2006 because she was unhappy with the duties assigned to her.
The witness said Skordelli was re-hired about a year later on his recommendation. Then, in October 2008, she was fired on the grounds of “inappropriate behaviour” following an incident with her superiors.
Menelaou said he personally handed the letter of dismissal to Skordelli who, he added, received the news calmly. He said Skordelli told him at the time that she had provoked the incident deliberately so that she would get fired.
According to the witness, on being handed the letter of dismissal Skordelli claimed that the network wanted her out, adding that she would “return” as a major shareholder.
During a previous hearing, Menelaou said he had learnt about Skordelli buying shares in Sigma from Hadjicostis, who was “enraged” because an employee had secured shares in a “secretive manner”. According to Menelaou, Hadjicostis had insisted that Skordelli leave the channel.
In court yesterday, Menelaou said that, in his opinion, the incident between Skordelli and her superiors was merely the end-cause, not the underlying reason for her dismissal.
Under cross examination by Skordelli’s lawyer Michalakis Kyprianou, Menelaou said Fanos Hadjigeorgiou was never employed at Sigma as a camera operator.
Hadjigeorgiou, who has received immunity from prosecution in return for testifying against the defendants, claims to have driven the getaway vehicle from the crime scene.
Earlier in the trial, Hadjigeorgiou had said that Skordelli and her brother offered him cash and a promise of future employment at Sigma in exchange for getting involved in the hit against Hadjicostis.
In response to a question, Menelaou said he was unaware whether Hadjicostis had been receiving threats.
The defence lawyer next asked Menelaou to read to the court from a piece of paper that police found on Hadjicostis’ office desk after the murder.
The text of the paper alluded to an implied disagreement between Hadjicostis and Andreas Hadjikyriacos, a former consultant for Sigma. In the text, Hadjicostis was berated for speaking ill of Hadjikyriacos. It ended with the words: “You want war, you shall have it.”
Asked to comment on the text, Menelaou said there had been a misunderstanding with Hadjikyriacos over an item printed in a publication belonging to the Sigma group.
Prior to this misunderstanding, Hadjikyriacos’ relations with Hadjicostis had been “very good,” the witness added.
The next witness on the stand was constable Ilarionas Astreos, part of the police team assigned to investigate the murder.
Astreos referred to a letter found by police in Skordelli’s residence. The letter was dated November 5, 2008, was addressed to the Radio-Television Authority and concerned Skordelli’s dismissal from Sigma.
Moving on, the defence asked Astreos whether, during the initial stages of the investigation, police had flagged other suspects in addition to the four defendants.
The constable said that detectives got various leads and pieces of information, but that at no time did police draw up additional suspects.
Also yesterday, the lawyers of two of the defendants read out a statement on behalf of their clients in which they claimed media coverage of the trial is biased and “distorted.”
The trial resumes on July 25.
Hadjicostis was gunned down outside his home on January 11 last year.
