TWO men are to stand trial in early February after pleading guilty to charges of aiding and abetting escaped convict Antonis Prokopiou Kitas. Rodosthenis Christodoulou, 22, and Ioannis Menikou, 31, are awaiting trial for their role in the escape of Kitas from a private hospital on December 12. Both men have confessed to being with Kitas, a.k.a Al Capone, at Stassicratous Street when a shootout broke out with police officers. Their trial gets underway on February 5.
Also in police custody are two members of the Drug Squad, one of whom is a top-ranking officer. They are suspected of helping Kitas evade recapture by alerting him to the whereabouts of the police.
Kitas’ startling escape from the Apollonion hospital, right under the noses of three guards, has rocked the police force and so far resulted in the resignation of a Justice Minister and the suspension of the governor of the Central Prisons. It is widely rumored however, that this is only the tip of the iceberg.
The force has found it tough to clean up its tarnished image, and even the ongoing probe over Kitas’ escape has had clouds hanging over it.
Reports have surfaced that affidavits given by a number of Drug Squad officers may have somehow ended up in Kitas’ hands. The statements were made between December 13 and 18, and concerned the circumstances surrounding the convict’s escape. The affidavits were taken by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) well before Kitas’ recapture and the launch of the current investigation.
If it is true that Kitas did have this information, then he might well have been able to change his testimony accordingly when he was questioned by police after his recapture.
For example, the convict knew the given name of a Drug Squad sergeant who was present at the Stassicratous Street incident, and even knew the sergeant’s serial number.
How Kitas could know these details has heightened suspicions that someone has been feeding him the information.
There is speculation that Ioannis Menikou may be the source of this information. After his arrest, Menikou was by right shown the affidavits given to CID by the Drug Squad officers.
But Athanasios Socratous, one of the five criminal investigators on the Kitas case, yesterday declined comment.
Socratous neither confirmed nor denied reports that the statements may have been leaked to the convict, saying he was not “qualified” to speak on the subject.
“All I can say is that we are concerned with these reports,” he said.
Meanwhile yesterday Socratous and his colleagues continued taking statements from the aforementioned Drug Squad officers. The team of investigators will also be speaking with convicts held at the Central Prisons who have offered to furnish information on Kitas, his associations and criminal activities.
