Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 00-12-28

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cyprus-mail.com/>

CONTENTS

[01] Double murder in Nicosia

[02] Illegals remanded

[03] Car attacks mar festive season

[04] Christmas road toll

[05] Bourse offers festive cheer

[06] De-sal prices hiked

[07] Guns to stay with reservists despite thefts

[08] Iraqi illegals seek asylum

[09] Charges laid in exchange scam

[10] Government `will not exchange with Attila'

[01] Double murder in Nicosia

A DOUBLE murder rocked a Nicosia suburb in the early hours yesterday. Andros Savvas Emiliou, 29, was killed instantly in a hail of at least 20 shots while Christos Tziakouris, 27, died in hospital shortly after the 5.25am shooting. The two were shot by bullets from an automatic weapon while leaving Ayios Omologites Youth Union on Spyros Lambrou Street on the way to their car. The weapon was believed to be a Kalashnikov found at the scene. While the police yesterday said it was too early in their investigations to give details but sources said Tziakouris was dumped outside Nicosia general hospital by a third man and three women who had accompanied the two and were waiting for them outside the Union. The police took the man in for questioning yesterday but refused to reveal any information on his identity. The two men narrowly escaped death in another apparent attempt on their lives late last year during a shooting, which resulted in the death of Emiliou's cousin. Emiliou served four years in prison for murdering his uncle while Tziakouris had been repeatedly arrested on suspicion of placing bombs. Tziakouris was on bail awaiting trial as an alleged accomplice in the murder of special constable Photis Petrakides. Government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou yesterday denied that serious crime was on the rise but said the state and police would doing everything "humanly possible" to prevent future crime. "According to our numbers and statistics there has not been a rise in serious crime. In fact there has been a decrease in crime of this type. The government will be taking action on all levels and will not be content with lower figures in comparison to the past alone and will try to prevent all criminal behaviour." He continued that the government was concerned about an increase in arson and bomb attacks on cars, "And is trying as much as humanly possible to deal with crime."

[02] Illegals remanded

A KURD and a Turk are being held in custody for illegally entering the Republic after jumping off the Roccas Bastion at Paphos Gate in Nicosia. The two men were remanded for three days on Tuesday after being spotted outside the Kurdish Worker Party building in Nicosia on Christmas Day. The men told police that they had visited friends in Limassol earlier in the day before returning to Nicosia. They said they had arrived in Cyprus from Turkey through Kyrenia port. The charge refers to the two entering Cyprus through an occupied port.

[03] Car attacks mar festive season

A CAR was set alight and a bomb destroyed a Mercedes over the course of 30 hours in Nicosia yesterday. The bomb explosion destroyed the Mercedes of a car expert while it was parked outside his home in central Nicosia at about 1.30am on Boxing Day. The bomb had been planted underneath the car of George Jirkallis, 46, from Lykavitos. Nicosia CID has questioned people thought to be involved in similar cases in the past but they also suspect the person who planted the bomb had professional differences with the car expert. The explosion has caused some damage to a jeep, which also belonged to Jirkallis and was parked near his Mercedes. Jirkallis told the media that the only witness to the explosion was his dog and avoided saying who he thought was behind it. The incident followed an arson attack in Ayios Omologites which saw another Mercedes set alight on Christmas Eve, belonging to Iosif Corellis, a stockbroker.

[04] Christmas road toll

ONE PERSON was killed and 20 seriously injured in car accidents around Cyprus in the four-day Christmas holiday period despite Police's reinforced road safety measures. A 75-year-old man died in a hit and run accident Tuesday evening on Salaminos Avenue in Nicosia. Damianos Charalambous from Palouriotissa was driving home at about 7.30pm when his motorbike was hit by another man's car who was drunk at the time of the accident, Police who are investigating the case said. The man, 26, who abandoned Charalambous after the accident, was arrested about an hour later and remanded in custody for six days. One hundred and thirteen road accidents were reported between December 23 and 26 inclusive. Police said the number of casualties was about the same last Christmas.

[05] Bourse offers festive cheer

THE ALL-SHARE index clocked up minor gains of 0.94 per cent yesterday after the four-day Christmas break. Trading opened five points up on Friday's close but slid gradually to close at 252.8 with no major surprises. Blue chip stocks were ignored for the most part with the FTSE/CySE top 20 gaining only 0.03 per cent. Volume stood at £19.8 million, one third of Friday's, which was a result of heavy trading in Kyknos, the target of a fierce takeover battle last week between Sharelink Financial Services and Era Portfolio Investments. Kyknos was absent from the floor yesterday after being suspended by the Cyprus Stock Exchange (CSE) board. "It was about time they decided that Kyknos should be suspended for the protection of the investors," said one Nicosia broker. "And it was really a quick decision in the end." At the same time Sharelink announced that, in view of the public offer submitted by Era, it would recall its own public offer to Kyknos. The CSE said it would examine the possibility of recalling the public offer made by Sharelink in conjunction with the examination of the public offer made by Era which had not yet submitted the relevant public offer document to the CSE. Sharelink notched up a one-cent increase to close at £1.43 on a heavy volume of £1.3 million making it the second most actively traded share of the day. GlobalSoft hit the number one spot with a volume of £4.5 million but remained the same at £5.33 while Tsokkos Hotels came in at number five with over two million shares changing hands. The share notched up half a cent to close at 47 cents. Banking stocks continued to take a backseat as the subsector slid 0.06 per cent. Laiki managed to make the five most active list adding a modest one cent to close at £3.19 but Bank of Cyprus (BoC) lost two cents to end at £3.36. New to the floor yesterday was the A. Zorpas & Sons Ltd. bakery chain, which made a relatively successful debut considering the fate of new IPOs over the past few months. The share opened at 0.89 cents and closed at £1.04 with close to 400,000 changing hands. "It was a fairly quiet session but that was because we had a significant player missing from the match today," the broker said.

[06] De-sal prices hiked

COSTLY crude oil and the low value of the Cyprus pound are hiking the price for desalinated water from the Dhekelia plant, but the state insists things will "even out" in the end. Because desalination is so energy-hungry, the agreement the government has with the Israeli company running the island's only functioning plant allows for the price for the salt-free water generated to fluctuate in keeping with the ups and downs of oil prices. Also, the government pays the operating company, which has a contract to run the Dhekelia plant for a decade, in foreign currency. The price the state pays for the desalted water is therefore pinned to the fluctuations in crude oil prices and the Cyprus pound's performance against other currencies. This mechanism has reportedly pushed the price of fresh water from Dhekelia up from the base rate of 54 cents a tonne to 70 cents a tonne. The Dhekelia plant produces some 40,000 cubic metres of water every day. But Senior Water Development Department Engineer Nicos Tsiourtis insisted yesterday that the formula setting the price of Dhekelia desalinated water was not all bad news for taxpayers. "The system is to the advantage of both the company and the tax payer," Tsiourtis said yesterday. "The taxpayer pays when the price goes up but benefits when there is a price decrease," he added. Tsiourtis admitted that the cost had gone up recently but added that dropping crude prices would soon make amends for that, with the cost diving below the 54 cents a tonne base rate. He said he did not know what the exact price of Dhekelia water was at the moment. After going through the roof earlier this year, the price of crude is now coming down to more `normal' levels. The Cyprus pound, recently pegged to the Euro, is still weak against most foreign currencies. The Water Development Department official said he could not comment on reports that the Electricity Authority (EAC), which has submitted an offer to build another desalination plant at Moni, was offering to produce fresh water far more cheaply than Dhekelia. "The offer has not yet been examined and I cannot comment on costs at this stage," Tsiourtis said. The government sees desalination as the answer to the nation's chronic water shortages and more units for Paralimni and Larnaca are in the pipeline.

[07] Guns to stay with reservists despite thefts

A SPATE of thefts of army-issue G3 automatics from the homes of National Guard reservists has the government worried.

Defence Minister Socratis Hasikos yesterday discussed the `disappearing G3s' problem with Justice Minister Nikos Koshis, with the aim of tightening up security over the issue. Four such weapons have been stolen from reservists' homes in the last month. In total, Hasikos stated yesterday, there have been 28 cases of G3s going missing from soldiers' homes, and only 17 of these have been recovered.

Hasikos said this was particularly worrying because he was sure the stolen automatics were ending up in the hands of criminals.

But the Minister said such public security concerns could not be allowed to override defence priorities. "It is a problem, but not a big enough one to force the government to have second thoughts about reservists or National Guardsmen being allowed to take their weapons home. From an operational stand-point, allowing the guns home is a very good measure, which reinforces our defensive effort," Hasikos said.

The best anti-theft precaution for those with G3s at home, the Minister suggested, was for them to keep the guns disassembled and with the parts hidden in various places.

[08] Iraqi illegals seek asylum

FOURTEEN ILLEGAL immigrants from Iraq have requested political asylum from the Republic and the United Nations after being apprehended wandering in Xylotymbou, Dhekelia and Oroklini on Christmas Day. The illegal immigrants told police they had left Iraq to escape prison, torture chambers and mock-executions they had recently been subjected to by Saddam Hussein's regime. One had a badly cut ear which he told police was the result of an experience with the regime. Famagusta district court remanded all for eight days on Boxing Day. The court heard the men were believed to have left from a Syrian port since Iraq had no coastal access to the Eastern Mediterranean and that all had told the police they were activists who would be executed if returned home. Four had been found wandering in the centre of Xylotymbou, three outside the town's police station, three at the British Bases at Dhekelia and four in Oroklini. Cyprus is seeing an increasing amount of illegal immigrant arrivals with additional police patrols on the coast introduced in an attempt to halt the flow.

[09] Charges laid in exchange scam

A 32-YEAR-OLD currency dealer and a 47-year-old housewife have been charged with running an illegal currency dealership which allegedly handled hundreds of thousands of pounds a day between July and December this year. Androula Demetriou is suspected of running the illegal exchange from her Paphos home, selling US dollars for Cyprus pounds at rock-bottom prices. Currency dealer Michalis Papaioannou is suspected of supplying Demetriou with the dollars. The scam came to light when Demetriou ran out of cash and had to resort to police for protection from enraged clients, the Paphos District Court heard earlier this month. On Tuesday, the same court charged both suspects in connection with the alleged scam and then released them to re-appear for trial at a later date. Police say the illegal money exchange was uncovered on December 16 when Demetriou, who comes from Salamiou village, went to police to complain that she was being threatened by a number of Greek Russians. Police probed deeper into the matter and said they found that the woman was running a black market currency dealership catering for Paphos' large Greek Russian community. According to police, the illegal exchange had been running since July and was being used by hundreds of Greek Russians to exchange Cyprus pounds for US dollars. Some clients were allegedly bringing the woman fifty or sixty thousand pounds a day. The woman then took the cash to the currency dealer who exchanged it for dollars, police say. But the scam apparently ran into cash-flow problems because the value of the pound fell and Demetriou did not allow for this in her dealings with her clients and so ended up offering her clients a better exchange rate that the broker was giving her. She ran into debt to the tune of some £280,000 and was unable to get her clients their dollars, Paphos District court has heard. The irate clients began demanding their cash and making threats, forcing the illegal operator to go to police, the court heard. Police questioned Demetriou on December 19 and an arrest warrant was issued for her the next day. But she suffered a heart attack, forcing her apprehension to be put on ice for a few days. The 32-year-old dealer, who was arrested on December 20, insists he had nothing to do with the alleged scam. He has told the court his only dealing with the woman suspect had been to change £41,000 worth of currency for her some time ago.

[10] Government `will not exchange with Attila'

THE GOVERNMENT said yesterday it would not heed calls to exchange Turkish Cypriot drug suspect Omer Tekoglu for kidnapped Greek Cypriot Panicos Tsiakourmas. The issue heated up yesterday when Andreas Constantinou, the lawyer for the Tsiakourmas family, said the case against Tekoglu would not stand up in court. He said he had heard this in comments allegedly made by DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades to Antenna TV. Tekoglu from the mixed village of Pyla was arrested on December 2 allegedly for possessing two kilos of heroin following an undercover sting operation. Police say he was arrested outside the UN-controlled buffer zone village but the Turkish side say he was illegally arrested inside the town. Ten day later following threats of retaliation from the Turkish side, Tsiakourmas, a 39-year old father of three, was abducted from his car within the British Sovereign Base (SBA) of Dhekelia close to the occupied areas. He is being held in the north pending trial on February 25 for alleged possession of 1.5 kilos of cannabis. Constantinou, whom reports said would be investigated on disciplinary charges for his comments yesterday, told CyBC radio that he had suggested the swap as a last resort if all other efforts to free Tsiakourmas failed. "I have trust in the statement of Anastassiades when he told Antenna that the Tekoglu case would fall apart when details of the arrest are brought to the court," Constantinou said. "Since there appears to be a mistake in the arrest of this man we have to move to as a last resort to a swap." Constantinou said that since the 1974 invasion the practice has always been not to arrest alleged Greek or Turkish Cypriot smugglers in Pyla but on the Pyla-Larnaca road within the Republic. "I believe the police lied in their statements and I told the Attorney-general this when they said Tekoglu was arrested in the free areas," he said. "If they did arrest in free areas why didn't police show us the car?" Government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said the issue of an exchange was not on the cards. "The government cannot get into the issue of exchanges with Attila," he said. "Such an approach will lead to self annihilation and will encourage Attila to adopt the strategy of abducting and blackmailing." Papapetrou said it was the Attorney-general's appraisal that the case would stand up in court. He also said there was an honest effort on part of the British government to have Tsiakourmas freed. Britain is outraged that a member of the public was abducted on bases territory and has set up a special road block on the Pyla-Pergamos road to assure motorists. Yesterday Niki Tsiakourmas met British Bases Commander, Vice Marshall Bill Rimmer. Speaking to the press after the meeting, bases spokesman Rob Need said Vice Marshall Rimmer "offered his sympathy and shared the frustration that the Tsiakourmas family must be feeling and gave his commitment that he will not personally allow this matter to rest and he would also not allow the English government and the High Commissioner, who represents them, to allow this matter to rest". Need said the circumstances of the abduction were still "not absolutely clear". "Circumstantial evidence points to the fact that he was removed from the Bases, and this obviously is a very serious issue," Need said.

ENDS

Cyprus Mail 2000

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