Alexoui back in jail for protesting search on friend

Cops are not backing down in keeping up the pressure on the criminal underworld, which got Alexis ‘Alexoui’ Mavromichalis arrested Tuesday for protesting against a search on one of his friends in a public place.

According to local reports, police officers were at a known hotel in Nicosia where they stopped a friend of Mavromichalis in the outdoor parking lot for a search.

At that time, Alexoui arrived with another friend and reportedly protested to police for the repeated searches against his person as well as other friends and relatives.

Alexoui then dared the cops to arrest him and leave his friends alone, according to police sources, who also reported there was an escalation during the exchange.

Police then arrested both Alexoui and his friend on charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Alexoui was expected to be released Wednesday morning but media sources said an argument broke out during a sit-down between the detainee and a senior police officer priot to the release. As a result, Alexoui was not released as expected and no further details were given as to when they might let him go. 

Alexoui criticises police publicly

Alexoui, who publicly criticised police for forcing him to take down his private security cameras, was detained multiple times recently. Comments he made previously on Facebook got him into trouble but no charges were filed and he was subsequently released.

Knews understands police are trying to keep up the pressure against individuals as part of a larger effort to keep tabs on people with connections to the criminal underworld.

But Mavromichalis has been challenging police openly, making allegations of corrupt motives behind repeated searches.

Recently, his parked car outside the Nicosia courtroom was inspected by police but the search did not yielded anything. It was not immediately clear whether the search was conducted on an existing warrant or other basis of suspicion.