Life prisoner wants to talk about Kitas escape

ANOTHER life prisoner is expected to talk to criminal investigators regarding the escape of Antonis Prokopiou Kitas.

Criminal investigator Onisiforos Ioannou yesterday showed up at the Central Prisons to meet with Andreas Aristodemou, alias Giouroukki.

However, reports said the meeting never took place. Apparently the convict has said he has some information he wants to share with the investigators that will help shed light on the case. It is thought Ioannou will try to meet with the prisoner again today.

Nevertheless, the investigator’s trip to the prisons did not go waste. Ioannou is thought to have met with Kitas instead, and the two went over some points in the lifer’s statement that needed clarification.

Moreover, 22-year-old Rodosthenis Christodoulou yesterday showed criminal investigators the route he had taken on the night of December 12 when he helped Kitas escape from the Appollonion hospital.

The suspect took police from the hospital to Stasicratous Street and from there to a number of other areas where he and the 42-year-old life prisoner had hidden while they’d been on the run. On January 2, the pair parted ways and Christodoulou alleges he went to Paphos before turning himself in.

Reports said the 22-year-old Geri man, who was the driver of Kitas’ escape vehicle, will appear in court tomorrow. Investigators are expected to ask for him to be sent to direct trial. A second suspect, Ioannis Menikou, who was also an accomplice in Kitas’ escape has already been sent to trial and will appear in court on February 5.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports said Drug Law Enforcement Unit deputy commander Avraam Charalambous was due to be released from hospital. Charalambous was given the all clear from doctors at Nicosia general hospital at around lunchtime.

According to CyBC, the suspect had also asked to see a private doctor and there was a chance he would be admitted to a private hospital for further treatment. Failing that, he will carry out the remainder of his remand in police holding cells.

Police officers last night swarmed outside Nicosia General Hospital and are thought to have asked doctors if there was a back door they could use so as to avoid the prying eyes of journalists and television crews.

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.