CRIME ROUND UP

 Pafos Live 7 June 2024

The Police arrested a 44-year-old man yesterday to facilitate investigations into the circumstances of the injury of a 49-year-old man, who has been hospitalized at Limassol General Hospital since May 20, 2024.

The 44-year-old was arrested under a court warrant issued against him based on testimony obtained during police questioning. His photograph and details were released by police on May 26, 2024, in an effort to locate him.

The investigation of the case began on the afternoon of May 20, when the Police were informed that a 49-year-old man was found seriously injured on a Limassol street and was transferred to Limassol General Hospital. The 49-year-old was detained for treatment in the intensive care unit of the Hospital, suffering from a subdural hematoma, haemothorax, pneumothorax and fractures in various parts of his body, while his health condition was classified as critical.

Police examinations secured testimony according to which the 49-year-old's injury was allegedly caused by an attack he received in an area of Limassol by unknown persons. The investigation also secured testimony against the 44-year-old, on the basis of which a judicial arrest warrant was issued against him.  Yesterday, around 7.30pm, the 44-year-old was located and arrested by members of the Police.

In his possession, a knife and various burglary tools were found after a search. As a result, he was also re-arrested for the flagrant offences of stabbing and illegal possession of burglary tools and was taken into custody to facilitate interrogations. Today he is expected to be brought before the Limassol District Court for a detention order.

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Another coordinated operation for the repatriation of foreigners staying illegally in the Republic of Cyprus was carried out by the Police.

In cooperation with the FRONTEX Agency, a number of third-country nationals were repatriated on 4/6/2024 on a joint return flight carried out by the German authorities.

This is the 8th participation of the Republic of Cyprus in FRONTEX joint operations for the year 2024.

It is noted that since the beginning of the year, 4,883 persons residing illegally in Cyprus have left the country through forced and voluntary return procedures, compared to 3,887 persons in the corresponding period last year.

The efforts of the Police and the Aliens and Immigration Service to maximize the number of returns continue.

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Filenews

As part of an investigation into a car arson case, police today proceeded on the basis of a court warrant to arrest one person.

This is a 40-year-old man who was detained to facilitate interrogations.

The case concerns a car arson, which occurred at dawn on 5/6/2024, in the area of Lakatamia in Nicosia.

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Members of the OPOD Headquarters, in cooperation with members of the Avdimou Unit, carried out today traffic police checks on trucks.

The focus was on technical and mechanical inspection to determine the condition and suitability of the trucks.

The checks revealed 36 complaints for various traffic offences, such as overweight / dangerous cargo, worn tyres, protective bars, etc.

Today's inspection operation by the Traffic Headquarters Department is part of the information and control actions on truck driving, carried out by the Police, with the aim of preventing serious and fatal road collisions, cultivating road awareness and increasing safety on the road network.

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More than 300 violations were detected and reported during traffic checks carried out by members of the Police, throughout Cyprus, in the last 24 hours.

In the Famagusta district, a targeted operation was carried out to check buggy vehicles, three- and four-wheeled motorcycles.

During the operation, 21 drivers were reported for not wearing a protective helmet, while three seizures of four-wheeled motorcycles, the drivers of which were found driving under the influence of alcohol, also emerged.

The majority of complaints concerned offences that are proven to be the main causes of serious and fatal road collisions, such as breaking the speed limit, for which more than 70 drivers were reported.

Traffic checks continue daily, with the aim of preventing fatal and serious road collisions and consolidating proper road consciousness by all road users.

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The Crime Detection Department of the Hellenic Police Headquarters has opened a criminal investigation into a Cyprus-registered company allegedly linked to US sanctions and the big business of surveillance. The reason for the company Santinomo Ltd. This business entity at least until recently was the interests of the Greek businessman, Felix Bitziou and is interconnected with the Intellexa group and in particular the Predator spyware. Companies in that corporate group as of March 5 have been placed on a U.S. sanctions list.

The ICF Headquarters decided to investigate a case of possible criminal offences on the part of Santinomo. Already, specific members of this Police Department have approached persons who are in a position to know facts surrounding the case.

An investigator of the Cyprus Police, according to secure information of "F", has already allegedly contacted a person living abroad, in order to obtain a statement from him. The same sources of our newspaper report that the ICF Headquarters entered the game of investigation after a complaint was put before it by the Unit for Combating Cover-Up Offences (MOKAS).

What was put before MOKAS

As we revealed at the beginning of last April (1/4/2024), on March 29, the Unit for Combating Cover-Up Offences (MOKAS), after examining information transmitted to it about Santinomo by an affected person, decided to forward the case for criminal investigation to the Cyprus Police and the competent Department of the latter, which is the Subdirectorate for the Prosecution of Financial Crime.

The person in question, who is allegedly directly affected by the work of Intellexa and the use of the Predator software, according to our information, had informed MOKAS in March of curious changes to Santinomo's corporate file that may raise issues of legality. Specifically, the person in question appears to have contacted the Unit referring to a possible "fictitious and/or fake transfer of shares of a Cypriot company".

This issue arose following changes made to Santinomo's file with the Cyprus Registrar of Companies, two days after US sanctions against companies of the Intellexa Group. There were relevant revelations on the investigative journalism website Inside Story and the newspaper "Politis". More specifically, Santinomo Limited (shareholder in Intellexa SA, sanctioned by the Americans) on 7 March 2024 informed the Cyprus Registrar of Companies, with a delay of 39 months, of a change that appeared to have been made in its management structure on 19 December 2020. On this date, Felix Bitzios appeared to take over the management of the company again, succeeding Andrea Gabacchi (the latter later told Inside Story that he was completely unaware of his inclusion in the company's management structure).

Santinomo previously appeared to retain 35 percent of Greece's Intellexa SA, which in turn is on U.S. Commerce and Treasury sanctions lists and operates under Tal Dillian's group of companies. Dillian, as we know, dealt with the case of the black van, while his name came back to the public on the occasion of the Predator software. Legal entities and individuals linked to the Israeli businessman have been massively included in U.S. sanctions lists.

The GPP

The issue was also addressed by the Cyprus Bar Association (GPA). In particular, Finsol provided administrative services to the police-controlled Santinomo. Finsol is controlled by a Greek lawyer, who is on the register of the Cyprus Bar Association. Simply put, a lawyer from Greece is supervised by the professional body of lawyers in Cyprus. That is why the issue mobilized the GPP, as it falls within its supervisory jurisdiction. As revealed by "F" on April 9 last year, executives of the supervision and compliance department of the GPP went to the premises in Nicosia where the aforementioned entity is housed and submitted questions to employees and officials of Finsol that were at the scene. They have blocked a number of documents for examination. Although no details of the outcome of the investigation were disclosed, based on the procedures followed, it is considered certain that the oversight and compliance department of the professional body of lawyers checked whether Finsol had declared that Santinomo was among its clientele, but also whether the provision of services to Santinomo was based on due diligence rules.

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