Off the wire
• Ciudadanos leader gives conditions for supporting Rajoy as Spanish PM  • LME base metals mostly decrease on Tuesday  • Ghana's first female Olympic swimmer wants to inspire women  • British FTSE 100 rises 0.62 pct on Tuesday  • Iran condemns deadly terrorist attack in Pakistan  • IOC encourages athletes to report harassment  • Table tennis results in Rio 2016 Olympic Games  • Ding Ning to face another chopper in Olympic semis  • Japan's star paddler Fukuhara enters Olympic semis for first time (updated with quotes)  • U.S. small business confidence adds slightly in July  
You are here: 　 Home

Cyprus appoints investigators to probe Interpol police corruption allegations

Xinhua, August 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Cypriot Attorney General has appointed a three-man panel to investigate Interpol allegations about complicity of Cypriot police officers in criminal gangs, including a ring of hit men, according to an official statement on Tuesday.

The statement by the Attorney General's office said the three people, including a former Supreme Court judge and two retired police officers, will conduct investigations as regards possible criminal offences and alleged complicity and corruption by members of the police force and other persons.

It said the probe will be conducted on the basis of information provided by the Justice Minister and the Chief of Police and will be concluded in three months.

Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou came under strong pressure to undertake responsibility and resign, but resisted the calls and said he will work to weed out corruption in the Police.

The Attorney General's move came after an Interpol document leaked to the press claimed that the Serbian police named a prison warden who made a call from a prison booth to a group of assassins as soon as they landed at an airport in the Turkish occupied part of Cyprus in March, warning them that they were under surveillance.

Serbian police told Interpol that they monitored a call made from Cypriot Interpol to the leader of hit gang whom they had just named to their Cypriots colleagues.

The Serbian allegations came after two hit men succeeded in shooting dead businessman Fanos Kalopsidiotis on June 23 in a restaurant attack that also resulted in the death of a police officer and his wife.

An off-duty police officer in the restaurant was wounded in the attack.

Investigators will probe possible connections of the slain and wounded policemen with the businessman. Enditem