12 years for ‘ruthless’ murder of Petrakides

By Martin Hellicar

GEORGE Zavrantonas was yesterday sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for the “ruthless” killing of former special policeman Fotis Petrakides.

“The accused proved himself a ruthless predator of the victim. He shot him even after he was dead. His behaviour was inexcusable,” the three-bench Assizes court stated in its decision.

Zavrantonas, 22, from Aradippou, had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of father-of-three Petrakides, 56, from the Engomi suburb of Nicosia, at Koshi outside Larnaca on April 2. Police frogmen pulled Petrakides’s bullet- riddled body out of Aradippou dam, five kilometres from Koshi, three days later.

Court president Georgios Aresti yesterday read out a detailed account of the events surrounding the murder.

Zavrantonas met Petrakides at an abandoned factory outside Koshi to discuss £7,000 he had given the ex-policeman to pay for illegal weapons. Zavrantonas went to the rendez-vous well-armed, intending to ask for his money back, Aresti stated.

The Larnaca court acknowledged that Zavrantonas was provoked into shooting Petrakides after the victim pulled a pistol on him. But, Aresti added, Zavrantonas continued to shoot Petrakides even after the first pistol shot had immobilised his victim.

Zavrantonas had also paid 30-year-old Christos Tziakouris £1,000 to hide out near the old factory as his body-guard, Aresti said. The court noted that the accused had claimed Tziakouris had prompted him to “finish off” Petrakides. Tziakouris handed Zavrantonas a Kalashnikov after Zavrantonas had shot the victim twice with a pistol, the court stated.

But Aresti emphasised that the victim was dead when Zavrantonas shot him for a fifth and final time.

Zavrantonas turned to his family at the back of the courtroom and smiled as sentence was passed. His mother fainted and had to be carried from the court.

Tziakouris, from Yeri outside Nicosia, is on trial before the Larnaca District Court in connection with the killing.

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.