A T.V. PRESENTER and her brother yesterday pleaded not guilty to charges related to the murder of media boss Andis Hadjicostis last month.
Elena Skordelli, 42, and her 37-year-old brother Tasos Krasopoulis denied all seven charges – three counts of conspiracy to commit murder and premeditated murder as well as lesser charges relating to the possession and use of a firearm.
The premeditated murder charge carries a sentence of mandatory life imprisonment.
The court said it will decide on Friday on whether to release or keep the suspects in custody until their trial, which starts on June 7.
A third suspect, Andreas Gregoriou, will be formally charged on April 21.
Gregoriou is recovering from surgery in the Nicosia general hospital following a car bomb explosion and could not be present in court yesterday.
Skordelli and Krasopoulis took their place in the dock in the packed courtroom at around 8.30am.
Before the hearing started, Skordelli, wearing jeans, a white turtleneck and black coat, turned away from the bench and applied some lip balm.
The siblings followed the procedure side by side, hands on the square wooden dock, with a female police officer standing next to Skordelli, just outside.
State prosecutor Savvas Matsas requested that the suspects remain in custody until their trial.
He argued that they faced the most severe penalty in the book and that was enough motive for them to try to flee the country or influence witnesses.
Matsas said they were both named together with Gregoriou, as being directly involved in Hadjicostis’ murder and that they were trying to gain control of Sigma television station by acquiring more than 50 per cent of the shares.
Skordelli and Krasopoulis own 20 per cent of Sigma shares between them.
The court also heard that the prosecution had testimony that Skordelli had allegedly said she wanted Hadjicostis dead when she was sacked from the station in 2008.
Krasopoulis’ attorney Marios Georgiou claimed that it was a blatant violation of the law for the two suspects to be held in prison together with convicts.
He requested their release on the conditions of a substantial bail, surrendering their travel documents, as well as appearing at a police station daily.
In his long-winded argument, Skordellis’ lawyer Michalakis Kyprianou said there was no testimony linking the two siblings with the murder.
He said the whole prosecution case was based on the confession of one of those involved, whom the state put in the witness protection programme in return for his testimony.
“Is there really any basis in what the prosecution is claiming: that the accused was so bitter, so hateful, as to want Hadjicostis’ death a year-and-a-half later?” Kyprianou said.
Kyprianou said authorities did not pay the necessary attention to the fact that there was tension between Hadjicostis’ wife and her ex-husband over the custody of their two daughters.
Citing other possible motives, Kyprianou also claimed that Hadjicostis was planning to create an electronic gambling enterprise that could create friction between competitors.
Hadjicostis, CEO of the family-controlled DIAS media group and Sigma TV, was gunned down on the night of January 11 just outside his Engomi home.
He was killed instantly by two shots – one to the chest and one to the back – most likely with a short-barrelled shotgun. Police said the specific type of ammunition used in the murder weapon – 12 gauge rounds – is illegal in Cyprus.
