By Martin Hellicar
A MAN charged in connection with the attempted murder of Antonis Fanieros was allegedly tortured at Limassol central police station in 1992, the Nicosia Assizes heard yesterday.
The court heard a shocking statement given to police by Hambis Aeroporos in January last year, describing how he was hand-cuffed, stripped, beaten, electrocuted and strung-up from the ceiling during a police interrogation. The accused’s mother, sitting at the back of the courtroom, broke down in tears and wails as the account was read out, and had to be helped from the room.
Hambis, 35, and his two brothers Andros, 30, and Panicos, 25, are accused of being instigator, architect and hit-man respectively in the machine-gun attack on club owner Fanieros in Larnaca on May 29. They deny the charges.
Hambis’ statement was read out after the court overruled defence objections and pronounced it admissible as evidence.
Defence lawyer Efstathios Efstathiou had argued the statement was not relevant to the trial because it was made long before the attempt on Fanieros’ life. But the court ruled the statement was relevant because it might establish a motive for the May attack.
Hambis made his statement after coming out of hospital following an attempt on his life in Limassol in July 1995, which the prosecution is claiming he held Fanieros responsible for.
However, the court said the statement could not be considered as evidence against Hambis’ brothers because it was made before the alleged conspiracy to kill Fanieros.
As it turned out, there was no mention of Fanieros in the statement, read out in court by police investigator Savvas Tsolis.
At the time the statement was made, Tsolis was part of a team set up to investigate allegations that Limassol police were involved in serious crime and the torturing of remand suspects.
Hambis did not point the finger at police being involved in the machine-gun attack against him, but did allege that he was tortured while on remand for theft in April 1992.
In his statement, Hambis said a hood was put over his head before he was led to a room where a number of officers beat him after putting a metal bucket on his head. He said he was stripped and beaten all over by officers using their hands and “hard objects”. According to the statement, his torturers twisted his genitals and gave him electric shocks on various parts of the body. He was in so much pain that he broke his handcuffs, Hambis claimed in the statement. He was later strung-up from the ceiling of the room by his feet while the beating continued, he claimed.
The torture allegedly lasted for “several hours” before he was dragged back to a holding cell.
Last year, an independent inquiry concluded there had been systematic use of torture during interrogation of suspects at Limassol police station in 1992 and 1993.
Three senior police officers axed after they were named, along with nine others, in the inquiry report recently won an appeal against their dismissals at the Supreme Court.
The trial of the three Aeroporos brothers continues today.
