Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 98-12-05

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

Saturday, December 5, 1998

CONTENTS

[01] Two held in double murder probe

[02] Housewife and brother-in-law lover 'plotted husband's murder'

[03] Muratov slams Brill statements

[04] Top civil servant goes on trial

[05] Taxi owner wins compensation for licence refusal

[06] Choirokitia gets Unesco tag

[07] Peres to visit for award-giving ceremony

[08] Cyprus hits back at Liberian call for shipping ban

[01] Two held in double murder probe

TWO SUSPECTED members of Chinese 'triad' gangs were yesterday arrested in connection with the vicious murder of a female student and her partner.

Chinese students Wang Yiang, 21, and later his girlfriend Cheng Shuai, 19, were arrested yesterday afternoon at his Limassol flat. Both attended the same private college as the victims.

During the investigation, police uncovered crucial evidence and, more importantly, the suspected murder weapons.

Police are still searching for a third suspect.

"There is plenty of evidence which, I am convinced, will lead to the solving of this case," said police chief Andreas Angelides yesterday.

According to police sources, the male suspect had scratches on his face and blood was found in his car and on a pair of shoes at his apartment.

It is understood that police believe that both the assailants and the victims were members of the Chinese mafia or so-called triads.

Wang was traced after police found a piece of wood near the ravine where the bodies were dumped, which had a car registration number written on it.

The Chinese couple - who arrived in Cyprus less than two months ago - suffered sexual and physical abuse before being strangled to death, yesterday's post mortems concluded.

The young Chinese couple were brutally beaten around the head with an iron bar, strangled and dropped down a 100-metre ravine near the Trooditissa monastery.

Police confiscated the suspect's blood-stained Toyota car, which they believe was used to take the bodies wrapped in a blanket.

Forensic evidence concludes the Chinese victims Lou Jian Hui, 23, from Kweichow province and Jiang Ming Xia, 23, from Szechwan province, were murdered at their Limassol flat on Wednesday and taken to the Trooditissa mountains where they were dumped down the ravine.

But the nightmare ordeal also included the woman, Jiang, being sexually abused before being killed, and the man, Lou, hit in the genitals with a pipe, sources close to the investigation told the Cyprus Mail.

It is understood that the man, hands tied behind his back, was made to watch his partner being sexually assaulted before he was killed.

"The cause of death was strangulation. There were numerous injuries on the bodies, mainly around the head, but these were not fatal," said forensic pathologist Marios Matsakis after carrying out the post mortems yesterday.

The strap of a handbag - allegedly belonging to the female suspect - was used to strangle the two, informed reports said.

Matsakis carried out the post mortems with state pathologist Sophocles Sophocleous in Limassol.

Police are convinced the assailants were looking for something specific when they attacked the couple and ransacked their flat.

In the wake of the gruesome murders, the Chinese embassy in Nicosia has expressed its horror and repugnance.

"The Chinese embassy has been greatly shocked by these most brutal killings of Chinese students," a spokesman told the Cyprus Mail before the arrests yesterday.

"We hope the Cypriots will solve this crime quickly and find the criminals, " he said.

Police described the crime as one of the most "brutal and vicious" they have had to deal with in recent years.

Before yesterday's arrest, police questioned at least 30 people who knew the couple.

On Thursday, police found what they believed to be one of the murder weapons - a bloodstained screwdriver, which was discovered near where the bodies were dumped.

Both Lou and Jiang suffered deep wounds to the head.

Items of clothing and shoes were found near the scene where the fully dressed bodies were disposed of.

The victims' personal belongings were packed into two suitcases, taken from the flat and strewn across the mountain side as far away as Kykkos (some 15 kilometres from Trooditissa).

A blanket, believed to have been wrapped around the bodies and found at the Trooditissa mountain range, was identified by the Cypriot landlady as the one she had supplied the couple.

Fellow students at Limassol's CTL college told police the last time they saw the couple alive was on Tuesday morning. Their bodies were discovered at Trooditissa the next day.

Neighbours and friends described the Chinese couple as well-mannered, quiet and studious.

Saturday, December 5, 1998

[02] Housewife and brother-in-law lover 'plotted husband's murder'

Mother-of-four Dora Drousiotou, 42, was brought up before the Larnaca assizes yesterday morning and charged with plotting, between July and September this year, to have her 44-year-old spouse Yiannis poisoned and shot.

Dora, from the Avgorou estate, and her brother-in-law, trucker Michalis Droushiotis, 30, were arrested in early September after Yiannis, a driver, complained to police they had conspired to have him killed.

The husband claimed his wife was having an affair with his brother and had asked another man from Avgorou to kill her husband. Yiannis told police his wife and brother had been trying to get him killed ever since he left the marital home in July, unhappy that his wife had taken to sleeping in the kitchen, where Michalis slept, rather than in the marital bed.

In August, Dora allegedly tried to get the would-be hit man to put poison in her husband's coffee, police investigator Costas Panayiotou told the court. In September, she allegedly asked the same man to shoot her husband, the court heard. The husband said he had been informed of these murder plots by the would-be hit man, Panayiotou said.

There is no evidence of actual attempts on Yiannis's life.

His brother Michalis was remanded along with Dora in September but was later released without charge.

The accused will answer to the charges on December 8.

Saturday, December 5, 1998

[03] Muratov slams Brill statements

RUSSIA'S ambassador Georgi Muratov yesterday said his American counterpart Kenneth Brill had been out of line in commenting on where the Russian-made S-300 missiles should be deployed.

US ambassador Kenneth Brill said on Thursday his government was willing to consider almost any alternative to the missiles being deployed on Cyprus, not ruling out the possibility they might be deployed on the Greek island of Crete.

"Neither Cyprus nor Russia are anyone's colonies, and as far as my colleague Mr Brill's statement is concerned, it at the very least causes surprise," Muratov said speaking to journalists at Larnaca Airport.

"Can you imagine that I as the Russian ambassador would make some statements about American weapons. We don't make such statements."

Muratov said Russia considered the contract it had with the government as one between two sovereign states discussing issues that concerned them.

"Of course if it is some sort of US initiative on demilitarisation or a reduction in armaments, we would all I think be delighted to hear of this initiative, and as far as the contract is concerned, it would be examined by the Russian side and the Cypriot sides to see how such initiative would relate to our contract," he said.

President Clerides, answering journalists' questions at a military inspection yesterday confirmed there were international moves afoot in relation to his discussions in Athens last week. Clerides met Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis in Athens in what was said to be a key meeting to decide where the missiles would be deployed.

It is widely believed that Nicosia and Athens disagreed over where the missiles should go, with reports suggesting Simitis favoured the Cretan option, an idea now said to have come from the Americans.

The decision on the fate of the missiles is expected to be taken by the National Council at a meeting to take place after December 15.

But United Democrats leader and Chief EU negotiator George Vassiliou said yesterday the National Council should take a decision as a matter of urgency.

"The National Council will have to discuss the issue and take its decision within the next few days," Vassiliou said. "I do not consider that the final decision has been taken. I believe the whole issue is still on the table."

Vassiliou said Cyprus must not do anything without complete co-operation and unanimity with Greece.

"We cannot take decisions without taking into account what is happening outside Cyprus in Europe and internationally," Vassiliou said.

Following last Friday's meeting with Clerides, Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis gave nothing away of Greece's opinion, preferring to say that the destination of the missiles remained in the hands of the Cyprus government.

Saturday, December 5, 1998

[04] Top civil servant goes on trial

A TOP civil servant accused of corruption considered using his subordinates to do work on his luxury home as par for the course, a Nicosia court has heard.

The first hearing in the trial of Water Development department (WDD) director Lakis Christodoulou - facing 29 charges of abuse of authority, deceit and attempting to interfere with a police investigation - was held at Nicosia District court yesterday morning.

Christodoulou was charged following a police investigation launched after employees and machinery belonging to his department were found on the building site of his out-of-town mansion during a police raid on May 20.

Senior WDD technician Sofoklis Nicolaou, who took the stand as a witness for the prosecution yesterday, told the court of his superior's response to police catching his subordinates working on his home. "Mr Christodoulou asked me if I knew of a single senior officer who did not have an employee of the service working for him on his personal jobs," Nicolaou said.

Nicolaou stated that, last May, Christodoulou had asked him, on 10 or 12 separate occasions, to provide departmental employees to work on his home near the new GSP stadium outside Nicosia.

The witness said he had obliged his boss six to eight times, sending a worker from a Lakatamia site to work on the luxury home.

Nicolaou claimed to have been present in Christodoulou's office shortly after the raid and to have witnessed WDD workers coming in to ask their boss to cover up the fact that they had been moonlighting for him.

The witness also claimed to have overheard Christodoulou telling one of his subordinate officers to record a WDD worker as having been on leave on the day he actually worked on his home.

He further claimed that after the police probe was launched, his boss asked him to keep things from investigating officers.

Christodoulou's lawyer, Efstathios Efstathiou, questioned the witnesses' reliability, asking him why he had waited till August 28 - three months after the raid - to make a statement to police about his superior.

The trial continues on Thursday.

Christodoulou, who has been suspended from his duties pending the outcome of the trial, denies the charges.

Saturday, December 5, 1998

[05] Taxi owner wins compensation for licence refusal

Last year, Leontios Christou finally won his right to run Astrapi - a cheap night taxi service between towns - and then took the Republic to court for previously denying him a living.

A Nicosia court ruled on Thursday in favour of the father-of-twelve, awarding him £13,000 in compensation for loss of earnings.

He was awarded the money because the Licensing Authority and the Licence Review Board were found at fault for refusing him a night-time license over the designated period.

Repeated applications by Christou were turned down without reason by the authority, as were his appeals against the decision to the review board.

After being frustrated by bureaucrats for a decade, Christou, without a lawyer, took the authority to court and won his right to run a late service.

Once he secured his licence, Christou then filed for compensation.

Some legal sources are calling it the first court decision of its kind, which could pave the way for citizens to seek compensation from the state or from state services that illegally obstruct them from their right to work.

However, other legal experts say the case does not set a precedent, though it is a rare and significant ruling.

Saturday, December 5, 1998

[06] Choirokitia gets Unesco tag

The neolithic, or "new Stone Age", settlement of Choirokitia, which dates from about 5,800 BC, is one of the oldest so far discovered on Cyprus.

Flourentzos called the settlement "one of the most important ancient sites in the Eastern Mediterranean," and said its placement on the list was important for the entire region.

Choirokitia was one of 30 sites from various countries added this week to the prestigious Unesco list, which now includes 582 archaeological sites from 114 countries.

Flourentzos said other Cyprus sites also protected by inclusion on the Unesco list included nine Byzantine churches in the Troodos mountains, the site of Kato Paphos, and Aphrodite's Temple in Palaiopaphos.

Choirokitia is believed to have been founded by a community of primitive farmers, whose origins are uncertain.

They depended for their livelihoods on raising such livestock as sheep, goats and pigs, on hunting wild animals, and on trade with neighbouring countries.

Their houses, which were shaped like beehives or the igloo ice-houses of the Inuit natives of Alaska and northern Canada, were built on foundations of stone - mostly river pebbles, and had superstructures of mud or sun- baked mud bricks.

Excavations on the site, begun by the Antiquities Department in 1936, uncovered many examples of primitive agricultural implements, as well as domestic utensils, arrow-heads, and stone axes, adzes and chisels believed used in carpentry.

Saturday, December 5, 1998

[07] Peres to visit for award-giving ceremony

The presentation will be made at a reception on December 15 to coincide with the Jewish candle-lighting ceremony of "Hanukkah" and the conclusion of celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of Israel's statehood.

He will also meet with several dignitaries during his short stay on the island.

In his address to the ceremonial reception, Peres is expected to refer to the Middle East peace process, as well as to the Cyprus peace process "and the new business opportunities resulting from the progress in the peace process," an Israeli statement said.

As well, he will also discuss the prospect of "regional joint ventures and the enhancing of Israel-Cyprus relations," the statement said.

Several months ago, a delegation of top Israeli industry and business leaders came to Cyprus to invite the island's businesses to exploit the "hundreds of millions of dollars" in Israeli capital, earmarked for high- tech joint ventures, and going wanting for lack of takers.

The business leaders also invited the legions of over-educated, under- employed Cypriot youths to consider filling thousands of high-tech Israeli jobs that are empty now for lack of enough adequately trained Israeli workers.

Cyprus-Israel relations have been strained of late by the arrests of two Israelis, both suspected of being agents of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, on charges of spying against Cyprus for a third country. The two remain in custody under remand.

Their arrests followed by less than a week the official state visit to Cyprus by Israeli President Ezer Weizman, the first visit ever to the island by a president of Israel, at the invitation of President Glafcos Clerides.

Peres has visited Cyprus in the past, as foreign minister, and again earlier this year.

Saturday, December 5, 1998

[08] Cyprus hits back at Liberian call for shipping ban

SHIPPING authorities are flabbergasted at a suggestion by Liberia that a blanket ban be placed on certain flags of convenience, including Cyprus.

The suggestion was made by Jeremy Smith, general secretary of the Liberian Shipowners Council last month and repeated at an International Maritime Organisation (IMO) conference on port state control in London this week.

Smith told the conference that a blanket ban should be imposed on ships from registers that perform badly on a range of safety indicators.

He hinted that St Vincent and the Grenadines, Cyprus and Turkey were among those he had in mind.

Smith backed his case by citing the detention rates published by the US coastguard, the Tokyo Memorandum, Australian port state control and the Paris Memorandum on both safety and detentions.

He noted that three flags - Cyprus, St Vincent and Grenadines, and Turkey - performed worse than average on all indicators.

But Cyprus has hit back in a letter of protest to Smith's comments.

"We have reacted very strongly," said Captain Andreas Constantinou yesterday.

Constantinou, who is a senior Marine Surveyor at the Merchant Shipping Department, said a letter of protest had already been issued.

In the letter, Constantinou said Liberia had been presenting itself as "an innocent and pure virgin".

"Cyprus has always supported the idea of Flag State assessment... and does not need to launch attacks against other flag states, even if they run their registries as pure business," the letter said.

Constantinou said Smith should not have drawn comparisons between the Cyprus fleet and the Liberian fleet.

He said the Cyprus fleet, which numbers nearly 3,000 ships, is made up mostly of bulk carriers, which have inherent problems, making them vulnerable to above-average port state control.

By contrast, he said, the backbone of the Liberian fleet is made up of tankers, which are already subject to tough inspection regimes, leaving little worries to port and flag states.

"Therefore comparing the detention statistics of the two fleets... is like comparing apples and oranges," Constantinou said.

He also said that experience gained in the last few years showed a dramatic improvement in the Cyprus fleet safety record.

"We very rarely nowadays receive reports which indicate that a vessel is substandard... and whenever there is suspicion that there is a need for immediate and serious action, no matter how costly this may be, we never hesitate to take such action."

Constantinou said a team of almost two dozen experienced and qualified Cypriot surveyors has been assigned to this task.

"Rather than drawing conclusions from statistics, it is high time I believe that flag states are judged by the infrastructure, the level of responsibility with which they discharge their obligations as well as their performance."

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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