After a nine-month probe into police corruption
Anastasiades dismisses deputy police chief
President Nicos Anastasiades has dismissed Andreas Kyriakou from his position of Cyprus Deputy Police Chief following the decision of Attorney General Costas Clerides to launch a criminal investigation against him.
Kypros Michaelides, the assistant police chief, will be officially appointed as his replacement on Tuesday.
The move by Anastasiades, who alerted the police official by email, was prompted by the internal inquiry into Kyriakou who has implicated in a number of leaks by Clerides. Kyriakou was the only police official to become subject to a criminal inquiry while others in the force were only subject to disciplinary inquiries.
Kyriakou and other officers had become the subject of a nine-month probe into police corruption which had been prompted by a number of irregularities in the Ayia Napa slaying last summer and how police officials reportedly bungled a tip-off from Interpol in Serbia on the arrival of contract killers from Belgrade on the island to kill Ayia Napa businessman Phanos Kalopsidiotis.
Kalopsidiotis and three other people were eventually shot dead in a restaurant by Albanian contract killers – one of which was killed in the shoot-out and the other is said to be still at large.
The criminal probe had reportedly pointed to Kyriakou leaking confidential police documents in several cases. He has already been charged by investigators in two of those cases.
According to media sources, Kyriakou had been chairing a meeting on Monday morning at Police Headquarters when word came in that President Anastasiades and relieved him of his duties.
“The President of the Republic has, with regret, decided to terminate the position of Deputy Police Chief being held by Mr. Kyriakou for reasons of public interest,” read an announcement by Presidential Palace.
The announcement went on to say that Kypros Michaelides – one of the assistant police chiefs – would be his replacement.
