By John Leonidou, Agence France-Presse.
Fotini Papadopoulos, widow of ex-president Tassos Papadopoulos, reads a statement to the media outside her home in Nicosia on March 9, 2010 after her husband's stolen corpse was found three months after a grave robbery from his family plot. The body was found at a cemetery less than five kilometres from the robbery site, after an anonymous tip-off from a telephone box.
Photograph by: Stefanos Kouratzis, AFP/Getty Images.
NICOSIA - Cypriot police arrested three people on Tuesday over the theft of former president Tassos Papadopoulos's body from a family plot in December, the official CNA news agency reported.
The corpse was recovered on Monday night after police received a tip-off.
One of the three, said to be an Indian, was said to have confessed and to have implicated a man who is serving a life sentence in a Nicosia prison and a relative of that man.
None of the three was named.
Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said "three people have been arrested tonight after arrest warrants were issued against them for questioning in connection with the theft of the body of Tassos Papadopoulos."
He said the three were set to be taken to Nicosia District Court on Wednesday for a remand request.
State television said the people arrested were the Indian, reportedly carrying a false Bulgarian passport, the inmate and his relative.
It said the Indian cracked under questioning and handed police a detailed confession implicating himself and the other two in the crime.
In his statement, the television said he claimed to have stolen the body of the former president, along with the man whose relative was in prison, last December from Deftera cemetery and immediately moved it to a nearby cemetery.
It is believed that the Indian, "who spoke with broken Greek," might have been the caller who tipped off family as to the location of the body on Monday after calling them from a phone box in Deftera, a suburban Nicosia village.
The discovery sparked a dispute between Justice Minister Loucas Louca and the Papadopoulos family over whether a ransom was demanded.
"There was a ransom demand" of the wealthy family, the minister told reporters, without disclosing the amount or saying when it was made.
However, he said "no ransom was paid."
Within an hour, family spokesman Chrysis Pantelides telephoned a state television news program to deny there had been a ransom demand and to reprimand the minister.
The minister later called a fresh news conference to insist the motive was purely financial, rather than political.
"As a minister, I am obliged to tell the truth," he said.
"We will soon have some developments in this case," vowed Louca, who also ruled out the involvement of Turkish Cypriots on the divided island but would give no clues on the identity of any suspected perpetrators.
Katsounotos told state radio DNA identification within hours of the find on Monday night had confirmed the body found was the missing corpse.
The body was found at a cemetery in a Nicosia suburb, less than five kilometres (three miles) from the robbery site.
Katsounotos later said the corpse was found in a recently dug shallow grave.
President Demetris Christofias, the successor to Papadopoulos as Greek Cypriot leader, joined the family in expressing "relief and satisfaction" over the discovery.
Papadopoulos's widow, Fotini, said "the finding of the body of our beloved Tassos has finally put an end to the ordeal which has overwhelmed us for the past three months and has restored calm."
Pantelides said the body, which was taken to the state morgue after examination by police at the scene, would be returned to the Papadopoulos cemetery plot near their home for a small private reburial.
Greek Cypriot media have been awash with reports the crime might have been a ransom attempt by a foreign gang, as Papadopoulos ran a successful law firm before becoming president and had married into the wealthy Leventis family.
Cyprus has sought the help of Interpol, the FBI, Scotland Yard, Greece and Israeli police as police scoured the area of the macabre crime.
The robbers stole Papadopoulos's body from inside his coffin on December 11 — one day before a memorial service was due to be held to mark the first anniversary of the 74-year-old's death from lung cancer.
Police at the time said it would have taken three or four people to remove the heavy 250-kilogram (550-pound) stone slab that covered the tomb.
http://www.canada.com / Bulgaria Today
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