POLICE continued with their islandwide manhunt for escaped rapist and killer Antonis Prokopiou Kitas yesterday, carrying out a large scale operation around Nicosia.
Officers from the anti-terrorist unit, the riot squad MMAD, the crime prevention unit and the CID, with ordinary police officers, scoured Mammari village in the early hours
Kitas, 42, who goes by the nickname Al Capone, has been a fugitive for ten days. His escape from the Apollonion clinic where he had been residing for the past six months has led to the resignation of Justice Minister Kypros Chrysostomides and to an investigation ordered by the Presidential Palace.
State television reported that police have been leaving no stone unturned, and are responding to every call from members of the public who think they may have spotted Kitas, or the person he is believed to be with, Rodosthenis Christodoulou, 22, from Yeri, who was part of the escape team.
Kitas was jailed for life in 1994 for the rape and murder of two foreign women.
His escape has left more questions than there appear to be answers for.
He was in a clinic room with no bars on the windows, he had been there for six months and appeared to have complete freedom of movement, and also a new passport. He reportedly had over €4 million in his bank account, and one Greek-language newspaper reported yesterday that he kept a Kalashnikov and bullets in his room.
Politis said he had obtained the passport from a civil servant through mutual connections at the Nicosia race track, said to be one of the ways Kitas made the money he did.
The paper said someone from the District Office was being quizzed by the police about he passport, reportedly issued on the same day the application was submitted.
Police believe Kitas has the passport with him and could be long gone from Cyprus.
The car used in the escape was found last weekend near Potamia, right next to the buffer zone.
Government sources told Politis that the network of contacts Kitas seemed to have proved there was widespread corruption in the public service.
“Al Capone did not find anywhere, any obstacles in order to organise his life as if he were a free man,” the sources said.
“He organised his stay in the clinic, the travel documents and his daily outings into Nicosia from the clinic, and it seems there was not a single person who could stop him.”
Police headquarters yesterday issued a statement denying reports that Police Chief Iacovos Papacostas had submitted his resignation over the Kitas debacle.
“The police would like to state categorically that in no instance did the Chief of Police visit the Presidential Palace on Thursday night to submit his resignation,” the statement said.
