`Agent’ says Limassol bishop is innocent

By Jean Christou

A MAN describing himself an “agent for hire” last night claimed the Bishop of Limassol, who is facing a spate of serious allegations, is innocent.

The claim was made to Sigma TV by a man called Andreas, aka `Keravnos’. who spoke to the channel by phone from London.

He said he had been hired to help Bishop Chrysanthos “get some gold and money” out of the Philippines.

Reports earlier in the month said the bishop, who has been named as a “suspect” in a $3.87 million scam in the UK, had brought documentation from the Philippines showing him to be the administrator of 25 tons of gold.

The documents had allegedly been given to the bishop by a Roman Catholic priest in the Philippines during a recent trip, at the height of other allegations against Chrysanthos.

`Keravnos’ told Sigma he was promised that his travel expenses to the Philippines would be paid but that he had been cheated. However he told the station that the bishop is innocent and had “just got mixed up with the wrong company”.

Meanwhile CyBC reported that police will today question the bishop over other allegations related to claims by three Portuguese businessmen that they had been swindled out of $1.5 million.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.