THE DEFENCE Ministry has played down an incident in which on-duty soldiers on the Green Line were robbed of their assault rifles and ammunition at knife point.
Yesterday, a 42-year-old man, who managed to steal two guns and ammo from soldiers at a guard post after threatening them with a knife, was arrested and remanded in custody for four days.
Andreas Patsalides is under investigation by Morphou CID for theft, illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, entering a restricted area, carrying a weapon with intent to terrorise, illegal possession of a knife and threatening to use violence.
According to CID Sergeant Socrates Socratous, the incident took place at the Afysallos guard post in the mountain area of Skouriotissa at around 1.30am yesterday.
“The suspect approached the guard soldier with a knife and managed to take his G3A3 assault rifle and his ammunition,” the investigator told the court yesterday. He also took the soldier’s mobile telephone.
“He then walked into the guard post area where he woke up three other soldiers and forced one of the soldiers to give him the other weapon in the gun-cabinet. The soldier left and abandoned one of the guns around 100 metres away. Around 15 minutes later, three shots were fired a short distance away.”
The soldiers gave a description of the assailant and he was picked a short while later at the home of the popular priest Pankratios.
Appearing in court yesterday without a lawyer, Patsalides told Judge Alexandros Panayiotou that he had never threatened the soldiers but that he was disorientated from the medication and alcohol he had previously consumed.
He also claimed that he took the weapons because he felt his life was in danger from people “threatening to kill me and wanting to see me sleeping in the river”.
Investigators yesterday requested a remand period of eight days but were denied by Judge Panayiotou, who described their request as “excessive”.
He then remanded Patsalides in police custody for four days.
Defence Minister Christodoulos Pashiardes said yesterday: “The matter is now in the hands of a police and they will be taking the appropriate steps.”
The minister insisted the incident was not an overall worry for the army, describing it as “an isolated incident that appears to have been committed by somebody with problems”.
