THREE MEN arrested on Monday on suspicion of being involved in the misappropriation of church property were yesterday remanded for eight days.
Paphos Bishop Chrysostomos said yesterday he was saddened by the arrests but insisted they were necessary.
Chrysostomos said the Holy Synod had been suspicious for some time but its members failed to adopt stricter measures and as a result certain people took advantage of the Archbishop’s ailing condition.
“They took advantage of the Archbishop’s condition in many ways and on a daily basis,” he said.
“They used to go to the Archbishop and he never denied giving them anything they wanted, especially in the last few years, if you asked him to give his own self he would have gladly offered it,” he said.
“We should have protected the Archbishop, and especially when we knew how he was being treated, we are all to blame for the outcome, we wish we weren’t but we want the tidying up of the church, and we want people to be afraid to take advantage in the future.
“I only found out yesterday that the Archbishop’s signature was forged, and it must have been discovered by the police, the committee gave copies or the originals to the investigating officers to prove there were thefts.”
The suspects, Joseph Aristodemou, the Archbishop’s cousin and chauffeur, the Archbishopric’s suspended Chief Accountant Chrysostomos Philippou who was also a relative of the Archbishop and accountant Elias Demitriou, were arrested on Monday following evidence collected during the interrogation of 22 people.
Last week the Holy Synod gave the police the go-ahead, after reviewing the findings of an investigation it had commissioned into the Archbishopric’s finances, headed by a former Supreme Court Judge.
Chief police investigator Themistos Arnaoutis told a Nicosia court yesterday the suspects were under investigation for their alleged connection with conspiracy to commit a crime, forgery, circulation of false documents, extraction of money under false pretences and concealment.
Arnaoutis said the police were investigating four cases involving the purchase of land worth around £300,000 in Paphos and Nicosia.
He told the court police had collected evidence from the suspects’ homes and court orders had been issued for the inspection of their bank records and the investigation into documents belonging to a real estate investment company in which two of the three suspects were shareholders.
A fifth case involving the purchase of land at Analiontas in the Nicosia district did not involve any criminal activity, according to the police.
Arnaoutis admitted that although experts confirmed that the Archbishop’s signature on cheques issued for the purchase of land was forged, police did not ask Archbishop Chrysostomos whether he had actually signed the cheques. He also admitted that the Archbishop was not questioned throughout the course of the investigation.
Deputy Police Chief Soteris Charalambous said yesterday evidence collected against the three suspects was sufficient for the police to request their remanded and added that statements collected by the police linked the suspects in various cases under investigation.
“During the investigation and from statements from various witnesses we found that the suspects would help us shed a light on the irregularities at the Archbishopric,” he said.
“We reached a point in which interrogation could not have continued without the suspects being remanded.”
Charalambous said police feared the suspects could affect the course of the investigation by destroying evidence and influencing witnesses. He added their remand would prevent them from fleeing the country or hiding in the north.
Defence lawyer Efstathios Efstathiou said he would appeal the remand ruling at the Supreme Court today.
