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Cyprus hunts for alleged Russian spy who fled

01 July 2010 18:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Red-faced authorities in Cyprus searched airports, ports and yacht marinas Thursday in a hunt for a suspected Russian spy-ring paymaster who vanished after being allowed to walk free on bail, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
Police also examined surveillance video from crossing points on the war-divided island, fearing the suspect may have slipped into the breakaway north of the island, a diplomatic no-mans-land recognized only by Turkey.
Justice Minister Loucas Louca on Thursday admitted that a judge’s decision to release Christopher Robert Metsos "may have been mistaken" but said authorities were examining leads on his possible whereabouts.
"We have some information and we hope that we will arrest him soon," Louca told reporters, without elaborating.
Metsos, 54, is wanted in the United States on charges that he supplied money to the spy ring that operated under deep cover in America’s suburbs. Ten other spy suspects were arrested in the U.S. on Sunday, and nine of them faced bail hearings later Thursday at federal courts in the United States. A tenth suspect has already been denied bail.
Metsos’ disappearance is a major embarrassment to the Cypriot government, which has promised to do everything possible to recapture him. The suspect was traveling on a Canadian passport and had said he was a tourist.
Metsos was arrested in Cyprus on Tuesday while waiting to board a flight for Budapest, Hungary, but a Cypriot judge freed him on euro27,000 ($33,000) bail. Metsos failed to appear Wednesday for a required meeting with police.
Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said there were "no indications yet" that Metsos had left the internationally recognized south of the island â€” and insisted that police bore no responsibility for his disappearance.
"The nagging question of why he was released on bail is best posed to the court, not the police," Katsounotos told The Associated Press.
Turkey is bound by Interpol warrants, but northern Cyprus is not and also has no extradition treaties with other countries. Its only air link is to Turkey, but ferries run to Turkey, Lebanon and Syria.
In 1993, businessman Asil Nadir jumped bail and fled Britain for northern Cyprus, where he still resides.
Katsounotos says Metsos arrived on the island June 17 and Cypriot authorities received the Interpol arrest warrant June 25. He was arrested four days later.
A Turkish Interior Ministry official said Thursday he had no information about any search warrant for Metsos, but if one was issued, Turkish police at airports and ports would be on the lookout for him. He spoke on his department’s customary condition of anonymity.
About 25 flights take off daily from northern Cyprus to more than a half-dozen Turkish cities.
Turkey’s Mediterranean coast is some 960 miles (1,540 kilometers) long, making it difficult to control, but Turkish authorities frequently intercept illegal migrants trying to sneak in.
Cyprus was split into an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north in 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup by supporters of union with Greece.
The island lies in the far eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, a mere 45 miles (72 kilometers) from the southern coast of Turkey, about 110 miles (177 kilometers) from Syria and 145 miles (233 kilometers)from Lebanon.
Crossings between the north and south of the island were forbidden until 2003, when authorities on both sides relaxed restrictions.
In the United States, nine others charged in the spying case were having bail hearings Thursday in federal courts in New York, Boston and Alexandria, Virginia.
A tenth defendant, 28-year-old Anna Chapman, was denied bail on Monday. She faces a potential penalty of five years in prison if convicted.
Most of the others are charged with crimes that carry penalties of up to 25 years.