THE GOVERNMENT sacked its chief prison warden yesterday after a jailbreak showed glaring lapses in the high security wing of the island’s main prison, authorities said.
The justice ministry said it had terminated the appointment of Prisons Governor Michalis Hadjidemetriou with immediate effect and launched disciplinary proceedings against seven guards.
Reneging on his promise of the previous day, Justice Minister Sophocles Sophocleous, said he would not name those under investigation because the matter was still being looked into, adding that EDY had also appointed Superintendent A’ Christakis Mavris to stand in for Hadjidemetriou.
Sophocleous yesterday opened a disciplinary investigation into the actions of prison guards and wardens on watch while two convicts escaped from the Nicosia Central Prisons on Sunday.
Addressing reporters yesterday, the minister said a total of seven guards who were on duty that night would be subject to a disciplinary investigation with four of those guards already suspended from duty.
Panayiotis Netzadi and Odysseas Kalanides had managed to smash a window in the prison’s gym using gym equipment, jumped down a six-metre-high wall and ran in the direction of the buffer zone.
But Kalanides, a Greek Pontian from Georgia, hurt his ankle in the fall. He did not get very far as he trudged through the buffer zone in a bid to cross over into the north. Kalanides was arrested by Turkish Cypriot police, who handed him over to the south through the mediation of UNFICYP.
Netzadi is currently being held by police in the north in relation to several offences he had committed there.
“After taking into account what was noted to me by the police with regards to the events which led to the escape of the two convicts, I have ordered the immediate disciplinary investigation against four permanent employees and three temporary employees of the Prison Department,” the minister said yesterday.
“After my decision, the Public Service Committee (EDY) decided to suspend the four permanent employees of the prison whilst the three guards on short-term contracts will undergo a disciplinary investigation.”
The Justice Ministry came under scrutiny from the media when former prison director Panicos Kyriacou spoke out of corrupt wardens who would not be above assisting felons.
Kyriacou had also added that he knew of five or six individuals who were part of this “fifth column” and who are employed in the Central Prisons to this day.
The two inmates had managed to break out of the high-security wing on Sunday afternoon, dodging manned watchtowers, cameras and barbed wire.
According to reports, there were two guards assigned to the high-security wing No. 4. At some point, the guard who was keeping an eye on the two inmates while they were training in the gym went to the toilet without calling for a replacement.
The officer on duty at the watchtower right across the gym was at his post, but neither saw nor heard nothing, even though the inmates must have made considerable noise as they jumped from the wall.
Also, the person in charge of monitoring the CCTV system claims he was at his post yet somehow missed the entire escape.
Netzadi was serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of a Slovakian woman while Kalanides was awaiting trial over the premeditated murder of a Russian woman.
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