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Suspects in Cyprus attorney general assassination plot placed in custody

30 October 2012 02:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Three people, one of them a convicted bomber, were remanded in custody for eight days by a Nicosia court on Monday, pending investigation into a conspiracy to kill Attorney General Petros Clerides by firing an anti-tank weapon at him, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

A police investigator told the court considering a remand request the three suspects were arrested on Sunday night after an undercover policeman posing as the supplier met with one of the suspects to deliver the murder weapon.

News about the conspiracy shock Cypriot society as crime against government or state officials is virtually unheard of.

The police investigator told the court that the tip-off about the murder conspiracy was received from an inmate in the Central Prisons in Nicosia.

One of the suspects is a 60-year-old man serving a 18-year prison sentence for booby-trapping the car of a judge 16 years ago thinking the latter was biased against him. The car blew up, maiming the judge and his daughter.

The motive behind the latest conspiracy was not revealed but there is speculation the convict had a grudge against him for not recommending a presidential pardon in his case.

Cyprus Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou later called a press conference to give more details on the case. He said the suspects planned to use an anti-tank weapon, probably purchased from northern Cyprus.

He added they planned to fire it at the Attorney General on his way to office or home.

One of the suspects, a former National Guard non-commissioned officer with a police record, was arrested in Nicosia as he was receiving the weapon from an undercover policeman posing as suppliers.

Two others, one of them the imprisoned bomber, were arrested shortly afterwards.