TWO MEN, accused of conspiring to murder two other men, were in court yesterday in the first hearing of the trial.
Greek nationals, Apostolos Kyrkos, 32, and 30-year-old Nikos Nikolopoulos, were remanded in custody on December 4, 2004 on suspicion of conspiring to murder Larnaca club owner Fanieros and a friend of his from Nicosia.
Michalakis Christodoulou, who heads the three-panel judge, ordered that a trial-within-a-trial be set after the defence lawyer of both men, Marios Georgiou, told the court that the men were illegally forced by Nicosia CID officers into writing their confession.
Meanwhile, 38 items were yesterday submitted to the court by state prosecutor Elena Zachariadou including two pistols, a gun magazine and a silencer.
In the remand hearing of last year, the court heard how Kyrkos had arrived on the island sometime in October, and came to an agreement with a Limassol man, Anastasios Symillides, to kill two specific individuals for 60,000 euros.
Kyrkos left the island and returned sometime later, with Nikolopoulos arriving the next day.
The two suspects, stayed at a Larnaca hotel, met with Symillides – who is still wanted by police – three times. According to the agreement, the third suspect would provide the weapons and ammunition for the hits.
The suspects allegedly ran into difficulties in carrying out the hit on the first target in Larnaca so they decided to execute the Nicosia contract instead.
According to their statement, the following day they rented a car and went to Nicosia where they located the Nicosia target’s shop. They hid the weapons in some bushes near the shop and watched the place, deciding to execute their plan on Thursday.
Police said Kyrkos was to be the driver while Nikolopoulos would carry out the killing.
Nikolopoulos took one of the two pistols they had been given, put on a silencer, and wrapped his black leather jacket around his arm to hide the gun.
He entered the tyre repair shop and recognised his target, but hesitated as there was a second person there, an employee.
Nikolopoulos said he had a punctured tyre, while Kyrkos pierced a hole in one of the tyres with a screwdriver.
The employee said he could not fix the puncture and the pair left, but stayed in the area to finish off the job the next day.
But police were tipped off and arrested the suspects near the target’s shop on Friday.
The court heard that they could not provide satisfactory explanations about their presence, while a pistol magazine and a live round were found in their car.
Police also found two maps of Nicosia and Larnaca with their targets marked on them along with a photo of the Larnaca man, which was found in Kyrkos’ wallet.
The trial is set to continue today.
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