THE ALLEGED spymaster of a “deep cover” Russian spy ring in the US has gone missing, after violating his bail terms, police said last night.
Robert Christopher Metsos, 54, failed to report to a Larnaca police station between 6 and 8 pm as he had been required to do daily until his extradition hearing on July 29.
“He was sought and not located,” said police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos, adding that an arrest warrant was being issued.
Metsos was arrested at Larnaca airport early morning on Tuesday as he tried to leave the island with a one-way ticket to Budapest. The Canadian passport holder was later released by the Larnaca District Court on €26,500 bail, after he deposited €20,000 and CAN$9,000 in cash, to reappear in court within 30 days, when an extradition hearing was to start.
The man is suspected of being the 11th member of a US spy ring allegedly working for Russia. The other ten were arrested in America on Monday.
Failure to apprehend Metsos would be a huge embarrassment for Cypriot authorities who have already been criticised for setting him free on bail.
When asked to comment, Katsounotos had seemed surprised by the court’s decision not to remand the 54-year-old in custody, as is often done when dealing with someone considered a major flight risk, particularly foreigners suspected of serious crimes.
If his plan is to leave the island, Metsos could attempt to escape through the Turkish-occupied north using forged travel documents or take a boat to nearby Turkey, Israel, Syria or Lebanon.
Police had received an Interpol red notice last Saturday informing them that Metsos is wanted in the US in connection with charges of acting as a non-registered agent of a foreign country and conspiracy for money laundering. The ten others arrested in the US on Monday are also accused of failing to register as foreign agents while some face charges of money laundering.
Metsos, the 11th suspect, is accused of passing money to the other 10 over several years in the last decade.
According to the Guardian yesterday, FBI agent Maria Ricci gave details of the case in the criminal complaints document prepared against eight of the alleged spies.
Ricci said in May 2004, Metsos was seen engaging in a “brush-past” with a Russian government official in a train station in Pennsylvania. She was quoted in the document saying that the two “converged on a staircase, carrying all-but identical orange bags” which they swapped in the middle of the stairs as they passed each other.
The US agent said the bags contained a large sum of money, noting that just hours after the alleged bag exchange, the FBI heard Metsos tell another agent in a taped phone call: “It is wonderful to be Santa Claus in May”.
The Canadian citizen is also being accused of meeting with another Russian agent, who is one of the ten arrested on Monday, in Moscow and Rome. The alleged agent Richard Murphy reportedly complained about his job to which Metsos replied: “Well, I’m so happy I’m not your handler”.
Metsos, who appeared in court on Tuesday in shorts and a T-shirt, arrived in Cyprus on June 17, reportedly for tourism purposes. The divorcee who has a son in Paris was staying alone at the €40-a-night Achilleos apartments in Larnaca. Apart from paying bail in cash, he was also ordered to hand in his travel documents with his details put on the stop list.
State prosecutor Marina Spyliotopoulou had argued in court that the man wanted for being an unlawful foreign agent and money laundering to the tune of $40,000 (US) was a flight risk who should be detained until his extradition hearing.
The judge, Christos Philippou, after weighing up the arguments from Spyliotopoulou and the suspect’s lawyer, Michalis Papathanasiou, decided to go with the latter and grant bail.
“If the court had decided to keep him in custody, we would have understood this,” said Papathanasiou yesterday, who acknowledged that the general impression was that foreigners facing serious charges were a flight risk.
According to Papathanasiou, Philippou is an experienced judge who has worked on the criminal and district circuit for over ten years.
The suggestion in some British media that Cyprus’ close relations to Moscow played a part in the man’s bail was rubbished by one Cypriot official.
“That suggestion is absolutely ridiculous. Our judiciary is totally independent,” said a senior official at the Legal Services.
It has also been reported that Metsos spent his time on the island before being arrested with an attractive, red-headed lady. The receptionist at the Atrium Zenon hotel apartments where he was initially staying said the two acted like any tourist couple, mostly going to the beach.
Despite the hype surrounding the 11 suspects, the New York Times has played down the reach of the case, saying: “The only things missing in more than a decade of operation were actual secrets to send home to Moscow.”
The paper added: “None of the 11 people accused in the case face charges of espionage, because in all those years they were never caught sending classified information back to Moscow.”
