Cyprus Mail
The police have proposed prosecuting 14 legal entities and individuals over the leasing of firefighting aircraft, following the completion of investigations into possible corruption and bribery surrounding the procurement.
Sources cited by Politis on Thursday said police investigations had been wrapped up and the file had been sent to the Law Office of the Republic.
The investigations had been announced on January 22 by the agriculture ministry and since then the police have amassed a bulk of evidence and proposed prosecutions.
Three forestry department employees had been suspended early on to facilitate investigations. They later returned to work but were transferred to other agriculture ministry departments.
The attorney-general’s office will now examine the evidence and decide what to do next.
Police investigations had gone back eight years, examining every detail of contracts for firefighting helicopters and airplanes.
Bank accounts had also been scrutinised. The police found that large sums of money had been deposited in some accounts, leading to investigations of possible bribery.
Investigators also looked into electronic devices and emails.
In June, Phileleftheros had reported that over the years a large number of contracts had been assigned to a single company.
Furthermore, between 2018 and 2024, six tenders for pilot services had been awarded to a specific company.
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Pafos Live
A case of attempted kidnapping is being investigated by the Police, in Larnaca, following a relevant complaint by a 51-year-old man.
Specifically, around 7.20 p.m. yesterday, the 51-year-old called the Police, who reported that three unknown persons attacked him and tried to use force to put him in a commercial vehicle.
Immediate members of the Police went to the scene where they located the 51-year-old. According to what he reported to the Police, while he was at his house, together with a 36-year-old woman and a 72-year-old, they noticed that near the house, the commercial car in question was parked, in which three people were riding.
The vehicle aroused suspicion in the 51-year-old, who, together with the 72-year-old, approached the vehicle to check it. As they approached the vehicle, they were allegedly attacked by the three strangers, who had their faces covered with surgical masks. The two complainants reacted, as a result of which the attackers fled, even leaving the commercial vehicle at the scene.
From subsequent examinations, it was found that the registration plates carried by the commercial vehicle belong to another vehicle, while a pistol with an empty magazine and other evidence were located and received inside the vehicle.
Both the 51-year-old and the 72-year-old were slightly injured in the attack.
Update - Filenews - The motives of the would-be kidnappers of a Ukrainian businessman who lives in the tourist town of Oroklini, who told the Police that he previously served as a minister in his country, a fact that is being investigated, are unknown. The 51-year-old complained yesterday afternoon that unknown persons tried to put him in a van, however he reacted with the perpetrators fleeing on foot, leaving behind very important evidence.
According to information from Filenews, the Police are investigating his claim that he is a former minister. However, he reportedly claimed that he had no differences with anyone. Under the microscope are the van left behind by the three perpetrators wearing surgical masks, a pistol with an empty magazine, a wig, as well as other evidence. The weapon will be sent for ballistic tests to see if it is related to any criminal act, while from the rest of the evidence an effort will be made to isolate DNA, which may lead to the perpetrators.
According to the Police, around 7.20 yesterday afternoon, the 51-year-old called the Police stating that three unknown persons attacked him and tried to force him into a commercial vehicle. Members of the Police rushed to the scene and located the 51-year-old. According to what he reported to the Police, while he was at home with his 36-year-old partner and her 72-year-old father, they noticed that near the house, the commercial car in question was parked in which three people were riding.
The vehicle aroused suspicion in the 51-year-old, who, together with the 72-year-old, approached the vehicle to check it. As they approached the vehicle, they were allegedly attacked by the three strangers, who had their faces covered with surgical masks. The two complainants reacted, as a result of which the attackers fled, even leaving the commercial vehicle at the scene.
From subsequent examinations, it was found that the registration plates carried by the commercial vehicle belong to another vehicle, while a pistol with an empty magazine and other evidence were located and received inside the vehicle. Both the 51-year-old and the 72-year-old were slightly injured in the attack.
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Passengers were found loaded with illegal tobacco products at Paphos airport. Officials of the Customs Department at Paphos Airport, after evaluating information, located two passengers with British citizenship yesterday before their departure for the United Kingdom.
Their luggage contained large quantities of tobacco products, which did not bear the marking for the harmfulness of smoking in the Greek and Turkish languages, nor the safety feature and the unique traceability code, indications that they were duty-free. In the luggage of the first passenger, 97 boxes of 200 cigarettes each and 287 packs of 20 cigarettes each were found and confiscated.
In the luggage of the second passenger, 115 boxes of 200 cigarettes each and 4 packs of 20 cigarettes each were found and confiscated. The two passengers were arrested for flagrante delicto offenses and taken to detention to appear before the Paphos District Court today with a request for their 4-day detention.
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The movement of united Cypriot hunters published videos of wire loops found by its members in the Akamas area. "Traps, searchlights and guns at night, wire loops decimate what is left. With mastery and without mercy, they do not let anything move.»
The movement blames the parties that do not immediately adopt its positions, as it states, to crack down on poaching. "The legislative vacuum and the political inaction / unwillingness to introduce strict and dissuasive penalties such as those we proposed, which are none other than flagrante delicto and the immediate prison sentence, the deprivation of a driver's license, confiscation of a car and personal belongings. The suggestion of those responsible for the simple deprivation of a hunting license and the large fine are not deterrents."
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A case of robbery reported around 1.20 in the morning today by a 39-year-old woman, is being investigated in Nicosia by the Police. According to the data under investigation, around 7.30 last night, while the 39-year-old was in her apartment in the Engomi area, she heard a knock on the entrance door and after opening the door, two people entered the apartment and attacked her.
The two suspects, a man (allegedly with a knife) and a woman (allegedly wearing a wig), asked the 39-year-old to hand over her money to them. After the 39-year-old handed them a sum of money, the perpetrators fled, stealing the keys to the apartment.
The 39-year-old was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she underwent medical examinations and treatment and was discharged.
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Filenews
The seven defendants in the case of the alleged prison-based ring did not respond to the charges pending against them today either.
The 48-year-old long-term convict Giorgos Christodoulou - Zavrantonas, a couple of goldsmiths, their son, a 40-year-old man from the province of Famagusta and the 26-year-old prison guard of the Central Prisons, in relation to the ring with illegal activities, were in the dock of the Nicosia Criminal Court today.
The 37-year-old businesswoman, who is also accused, did not appear in court and according to her lawyer Dimitris Topalidis, she was admitted to a private hospital and yesterday underwent surgery.
Zavranonas' lawyer requested that the case be postponed until after December 12 as his request for the cancellation of the search warrant in his cell is pending in the Supreme Court, which may affect the present case. The Court consented and the case was adjourned to December 17.
The spokeswoman for the prosecution secured an arrest warrant for the 37-year-old, which will remain unexecuted until the next session.
It is noted that all the defendants expressed their readiness to respond to the charges, which is expected to happen on December 17.
All the accused remain free with restrictive conditions, while for the first defendant (s.s. Zavrantonas) it was decided that he remains in custody.
The seven defendants face, among other charges, for conspiracy to commit a felony and a misdemeanor, corruption offenses, illegal possession of property and offenses related to money laundering.
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A serious case of poaching with the use of iron traps was reported this morning by members of the Game and Fauna Service.
More specifically, members of the Service, from 23:00 last night, placed under surveillance a specific area, within a prohibited hunting area, in the community of Psematismenos in the province of Larnaca, in which iron traps for catching hares had previously been located and which carried muskets in order to attract prey.
The iron traps were located in two different areas (in one of the iron traps there was already a freshly killed frangolina trapped) as a result of which both areas were put under surveillance by two different teams of our Service.
Around 04:00 in the morning, a person approached the area, turned on a device that emits the chirping of wild birds and then proceeded towards the iron traps. When he reached the iron trap in which the freshly killed francoline was trapped, then he opened the trap and caught the francoline.
Immediately, the members of the Service intervened and arrested the suspect who reacted by throwing the iron trap to the ground. From an inspection carried out in the area, a freshly killed francolina, two iron traps for catching hares, forty-nine limesticks and a device that emits the chirping of wild birds were confiscated as evidence.
Finally, it is worth noting that this is the fifth time this suspect has been reported for similar offenses.
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A lawyer was sentenced to five years in prison for a series of felonies involving a car accident victim and in the 17 months after his imprisonment he asked for parole. When the competent Council rejected his application, he appealed to the Administrative Court requesting the annulment of the decision.
The Court, after examining all the grounds of the appeal, rejected it, even though the lawyer accepted that he must compensate the victim.
The applicant had challenged the legality and validity of the decision of the Council for the Release of Prisoners on Leave dated. 20.8.2024, according to which his application for his conditional release on leave was unanimously rejected.
According to the facts of the case, the applicant, aged 54 at the time of the adoption of the contested decision, is a law graduate, who practiced the profession of lawyer for many years in the Republic.
"According to the evidence before me, and as stated in the contested decision, the applicant, in the context of the exercise of his profession, committed the felonies of forgery of a document, circulation of a forged document, preparation of false evidence with the aim of misleading the Court, causing the execution of a document with false representations, theft from a representative and money laundering from illegal activity".
As it is characteristically stated in the contested decision, the victim of the applicant's cumulative criminal behaviour is a foreigner, who, in 2009, while in the Republic, was very seriously injured in a car accident.
The applicant, according to the contested decision, "acting fraudulently, undertook to represent his then young victim in court proceedings to secure compensation from the driver who injured him. These proceedings had a happy ending since damages amounting to €257,443 were awarded. However, the applicant gave his victim only the minimum amount of €25,00.00 and kept the remaining amount of €232,443 for himself."
The lawyer's illegalities were noticed by the victim and in 2017, after reporting him for his illegal actions, the latter escaped and settled in England.
He was arrested in 2022 in Germany, as part of the execution of a European arrest warrant, and transferred to the Republic. Brought before the Criminal Court, the applicant pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to concurrent prison sentences, with a maximum sentence of five years in prison and has been serving these sentences since 11.2.2022. On 20.1.2023, in the context of civil proceedings, the applicant accepted that he must pay his victim the amount of €232,443, which he stole.
Seventeen months after his conviction, he requested conditional release, however the competent Council, after seeking the views of all the services involved and hearing him, ruled that if the applicant "returns to society under the status of released on leave, he will do so without having improved morally, without having been reformed and without having genuinely and practically repented", Furthermore, "there would be no environment capable of supporting and advising him".
The Court that examined its appeal ruled that there was no lack of investigation or reasoning in the contested decision. It also found that the Council took into account and assessed all the evidence before it and not only the fact that the victim was not paid and/or compensated by the applicant, as being unfounded by the applicant's side.
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Members of the Police - Paphos TAE, Paphos Traffic Police and other members of the Paphos ADE - during a coordinated operation, located a 32-year-old man who was wanted in connection with a robbery case, driving in an area in Paphos, a car that had been stolen on November 13-17, in Limassol.
The 32-year-old tried to escape by driving the car dangerously on roads in the area. During his escape route, the vehicle driven by the 32-year-old collided twice with a police vehicle, as a result of which it was immobilized after the second collision.
The 32-year-old, together with a second man, who was a passenger in the vehicle, fled on foot and then the members of the Police proceeded to fire warning shots, with their service weapons.
The Police managed to stop the 32-year-old and proceeded to arrest him, despite the fact that he resisted.
In the possession of the 32-year-old, small amounts of cannabis and a crystalline substance believed to be methamphetamine, weighing half a gram respectively, a harmful gas launcher, and a bundle of car keys were found.
The vehicle driven by the 32-year-old had a vehicle registration number plate, which was stolen yesterday, in Paphos.
According to the data under investigation, the robbery was committed on November 04, when a 70-year-old woman, while she was next to her car, in an open area in Paphos, unknown to the man, opened the passenger door of her car and stole her mobile phone and bag. The 70-year-old tried to prevent the perpetrator, who, driving his car to escape, dragged her, as a result of which she was seriously injured in the right shoulder, where she suffered a fracture.
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As part of the efforts made by the Police to combat serious and organized crime, a coordinated operation was carried out this morning at the Nicosia Horse Racing Club in Agios Dometios.
Members of the TAE, the OPE, the Warrant Execution Squad of the Nicosia Police Department, the YKAN participated in the operation, the Ministry of Labor, as well as officials of the Inspection Service of the Ministry of Labor.
During the operation, open spaces and premises of the Horse Racing Club were inspected and 42 persons were checked. Also, seven fine warrants were executed and the total amount of 1,179 euros was collected.
In addition, the officials of the Ministry of Finance. Two written notices of a possible undeclared work violation.
The examinations continue from the TAE of Nicosia.
