Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 98-10-08

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Thursday, October 08, 1998

Attorney-general meets Michaelides

THERE WAS a variety of lead stories on yesterday's front pages.

Haravghi reported that Attorney-general Alecos Markides had had a long meeting with Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides to discuss the corruption allegations he was facing.

The paper could not say what had been discussed, but it claimed that Markides had informed President Clerides that the news was not good for Michaelides. Consequently it would be very difficult for Clerides to keep Michaelides in his position after the completion of the Auditor-general's investigation.

It also alleged that behind-the-scenes efforts were being made so that the findings of the investigation would not be harmful to Michaelides. Presidential Palace circles were insisting that Michaelides had made his money when he was not a minister.

Alithia said that the report prepared by the special investigative committee, which was appointed to look into the dealings of Limassol Bishop Chrysanthos, was handed to Archbishop Chrysostomos. It consisted of 50 sections.

The report will be discussed by the Holy Synod, which has a range of punitive measures to choose from. If it decides to defrock the Bishop then an inquiry team, consisting of three bishops, would have to be set up. If the inquiry finds that Chrysanthos was responsible, he would be tried before a Synod court.

Phileleftheros reported that Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Yiannos Kranidiotis had sent a "clear message" that the new UN initiative on reducing tension, was not in itself enough to justify another postponement of the arrival of the S-300 missiles.

Kranidiotis made his statement after a visit with State Department official Thomas Pickering in Washington. While the Cyprus government refused to make any comment about the missiles, Moscow repeated its guarantee for their safe transfer to Cyprus, showing that the missile issue remained open.

Simerini said that as the clouds of war gathered over the Turkey-Syria border, Ankara had issued an ultimatum to Damascus: surrender the leader of the PKK Abdullah Ocalan and stop supporting the Kurdish guerrillas, or we will take action.

Turkey described this as the last warning and continued to send reinforcements to the border. Syria said that Turkey was threatening regional security and stability, and called on Ankara to stop exporting its domestic problems.

Machi reported that the police had managed to arrest seven people (an eighth was being sought) suspected of plotting the murder of two men. One of the detainees told the police of the plot and claimed that three Kalashnikov automatic rifles had been obtained for the alleged murder attempt.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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