Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 98-08-14

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

Thursday, August 13, 1998

The bishop, the actor and the coupist

BISHOP Chrysanthos of Limassol, reeling under a barrage of allegations about his business dealings, is in a rush to sell his duty-free Mercedes and leave the country, Simerini suggested yesterday.

In a front-page article, the paper stated it had "information" that the Bishop had applied on Wednesday for the appropriate licence from the Customs and Excise department to enable him to sell his luxury Mercedes. Chrysanthos is entitled to a duty-free vehicle because he is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Customs and excise officers pulled out all the stops and got Chrysanthos his licence ready that same day, the paper reported.

And the reason for this rush? The bishop is rumoured to be preparing to abandon these shores, Simerini said.

Under the banner "exclusive", Machi reported that Titanic star, Leonardo di Caprio was enjoying a Summer break in Paphos. The movie star and sex symbol was enjoying the blue seas of Aphrodite's birth-place accompanied by his co-star in the box-office block-buster, Kate Winslet.

The two stars were here incognito, but Machi had tracked them down and, what's more, had caught them in "tender moments" that would interest news agencies the world over, the paper reported.

There were no photos of these shocking intimacies.

Left-wing Haravghi and right-wing Alithia carried contrasting stories about the long-running Vintzileos scandal.

Haravghi claimed the government had bent all the rules to enable Vintzileos, head of the Greek secret service during the coup, to visit the island.

"Arrangements" were made to ensure the coupist did not have to pass through passport control when arriving or leaving Larnaca airport.

Vintzileos' passport was stamped by a policeman known to be a close associate of a top member of the governing Disy party and the coupist, who is on a stop-list, was allowed in and out without obstruction, Haravghi claimed.

But the plan went awry when Vintzileos arrived early at the airport on the day of his departure and went straight to passport control before the Disy policeman had arrived on the scene. He was thus identified by airport officials and only the later intervention of the policeman enabled him to escape arrest.

Alithia tried to turn the tables on opposition parties by "revealing" that the family of Yiangos Papadopoulos had donated "hundreds of thousands" to Akel, Diko and the campaign of their candidate George Iacovou for the February Presidential elections.

Vintzileos is lawyer for the family and the government claims he was allowed to visit at their request.

Alithia said Diko leader Spyros Kyprianou had publicly admitted huge donations were made to the Iacovou campaign by the Papadopoulos family. So the ex-coupist's visit did not constitute a show of favouritism for government supporters, the paper argued.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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