By Martin Hellicar
THE CONFESSED killer of a French tourist went boozing while his victim lay dead in the boot of his taxi and later took in a strip-show after dumping the corpse down a 100-foot well, the Limassol assizes heard yesterday.
Taxi driver Kyriacos Andreas Zanas, 36, from Kiti village outside Larnaca, has pleaded guilty to murdering 49-year-old Jacqueline Françoise Chomik after picking her up from Larnaca airport on Christmas day last year.
The prosecution, summing up the case against the taxi driver yesterday, told the court Zanas had shot Chomik with his double-barrelled hunting gun following a “disagreement” on the way to her Limassol hotel.
Zanas apparently told police Chomik began shouting at him in French, a language he does not understand, and then grabbed at his collar. Zanas “saw red” at this point and drove off the highway onto a dirt track in the Moni area and told Chomik to get out of his cab, the prosecutor stated, quoting from a statement Zanas made to police after his arrest.
Zanas then got out of the cab and shot Chomik in the stomach, the court heard. According to the statement, Zanas then fired the second barrel, missed, re-loaded and shot her in the stomach, again, and face.
He than put her bloodied body in the boot of his cab and drove back to Larnaca airport, the court heard. There he met up with a taxi-driver friend and went to a party at the home of another colleague, the prosecution said.
After four hours of drinking he left the party with his friend and told him of the body in his car boot, the court heard. The two men then drove to the village of Xylotymbou, about 30km from Larnaca, and dumped Chomik’s body down a dry well, the prosecution said.
The two friends then drove to a Nicosia cabaret to enjoy a floor-show, the court heard.
Zanas was arrested on February 7 after the DNA blueprint of blood stains discovered on his cab was found to closely match that of Chomik’s relatives. Police say that on February 8, a month after Chomik’s disappearance, Zanas led them to a well near Xylotymbou where the victim’s body was discovered.
Another Larnaca airport taxi driver, 38-year-old Panicos Andreou, alias Shioferos, has been charged with helping Zanas dispose of the body. Shioferos has pleaded not guilty to charges of being an accessory after the fact.
Zanas’ lawyer Andreas Andreou, pleading for a lenient sentence yesterday, told the court his client fled the country after the incident but was then driven by guilt to return and eventually admit to the killing.
Andreou said the shooting was not premeditated, and asked the court to take into account the fact that Zanas had a drug habit and psychological problems. A psychiatric report showed he had a disturbed personality and had difficulty controlling his impulses, the court heard.
The lawyer added that Zanas had three children from two different marriages.
The court is to sentence Zanas on June 4.
