Aeroporos investigations getting bogged down

INVESTIGATIONS into the murder of Hambis Aeroporos seem to be becoming more complicated than police had originally thought.

Requesting an extension for the remand of one the suspects from the Limassol court on Sunday, police investigator George Aristidou said police still had to question 150 people in the case.

He added that police were also looking for more evidence, including further witnesses.

The court granted the new eight-day remand for Prokopis Prokopiou.

A search of Limassol’s Vati rubbish dump, which police believe may conceal important evidence linking the suspects to the crime, had so far proved fruitless, Aristidou told the court.

The most concrete evidence in police hands remained the mobile telephone abandoned at the scene of the crime. But this evidence is thought to be too circumstantial to be used in criminal prosecution.

Prokopiou is one of five suspects arrested in connection with the murder of Aeroporos last month.

The suspect was first remanded on December 19 while undergoing kidney dialysis at Limassol general hospital.

The 35-year-old Prokopiou is suspected of being the driver carrying Hambis’ murderers.

Two police officers, Christos Symianos and Savvas Ioannou, alias Kinezos, have also been arrested in connection with the murder along with nightclub owner Sotiris Athinis and his sister Zoe Alexandrou, the owner of the mobile phone found at the scene.

Prokopiou is a former employee at Symianos’ father’s restaurant, while Symianos is said to be a close friend of Athinis. Athinis’ brother Melios was shot dead in November 1995. Sotiris Athinis survived a bomb attack outside his club in August last year.

Aeroporos was gunned down in broad daylight by three hooded men on December 15, 1998. His brother Andros was murdered earlier in the year.

Ballistic evidence from an M58 automatic found at the scene of Hambis’ murder showed it had also been used to kill his brother.

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