Witness told she masterminded Sigma takeover

PROSECUTION witness Rea Andronikou yesterday denied being the mastermind behind covert efforts to take over Sigma TV station during the ongoing trial for the murder of Sigma boss Andis Hadjicostis. 

Defence lawyers grilled the witness on two fronts: on her husband’s and her own Sigma interests and on her initial and subsequent statements to the police versus those in court. 

Andronikou and her husband are Sigma shareholders. 

Andronikou’s husband was jailed in 2007 for stealing millions from a pension fund belonging to the Electricity Authority of Cyprus. 

The defence accused the witness of holding a covert meeting in 2009 to take over Sigma with her husband and the murder’s two alleged masterminds: Elena Skordelli and her brother Tassos Krasopoulis. 

The defence said the witness did not initially tell the police about the meeting because “five people came to the house together to form a team in order to take over 51 per cent (of Sigma)”. 

The witness replied that Skordelli told her that some of her brother’s partners would be present at that meeting to talk about land development opportunities. 

The defence told Andronikou she was only forced to mention the meeting because the police found out about it from another statement. 

“You were the mastermind behind the team planning to get the majority of Sigma stocks,” Skordelli’s lawyer told the witness. 

He also told Andronikou she had fabricated claims of a “stressed and pushy (Skordelli) with the sole purpose of getting this woman convicted”, and secure better treatment for her imprisoned husband. 

The witness said her husband’s treatment in jail had not changed and he received a sentence suspension (last year) because of his health problems. 

The witness also denied having tense ties with the Sigma bosses. 

Andis Hadjicostis was gunned down outside his home on January 11 last year. 

The trial continues next Wednesday. 

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.