FBI weighs in on theft of Papadopoulos’ remains

THE U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is assisting police in the investigation into the theft of the body of late former president Tassos Papadopoulos, a spokesman said yesterday.
An FBI official attached to the US embassy in Greece visited Cyprus last week and was briefed on the investigation into the gruesome act that took place earlier this month, police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said.
The FBI agent also visited the cemetery in Deftera, just outside Nicosia and departed for Athens after two days.
Katsounotos said the agent prepared a report, which was passed on to the FBI headquarters in Washington D.C where it will be assessed.
“We are waiting for the FBI to define what kind of help we should ask for,” Katsounotos told reporters.
The police spokesman denied information claiming that the body of the former president had been transferred outside the jurisdiction of the Republic of Cyprus.
“Such a view has not been expressed by the FBI agent or anyone else,” Katsounotos said.
Police have questioned numerous individuals but so far it seems the investigation is in the dark as to the motive and the identity of the perpetrators of the theft that shocked Cyprus.
A day before the anniversary of his death on December 12, 2008, Papadopoulos’ corpse was removed from its casket overnight in torrential rain after the culprits shifted a 250-kg granite slab and dug through several feet of earth.
It was a well-organised act that police believe was executed by a group of people who left few clues behind.

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.