Grenade thrown at home of trial witness

Three young males have been arrested in connection with an investigation into a hand grenade attack against a Lakatamia residence, whose owner is a witness in the Alexoui case.

Police said they arrested three males aged 16, 19, and 20, after investigators evaluated information in connection with a hand grenade attack that took place in the wee hours Thursday morning in Lakatamia, a western suburb in Nicosia district.

Local media said an unknown person on a scooter was believed to have thrown a hand grenade outside the house of 40-year-old Fanos Hadjigeorgiou, who was inside his residence at the time of the incident around 2am.

Hadjigeorgiou was in the news recently after he was involved in the trial of Nicosia businessman Alexis “Alexoui” Mavromichalis and Miroslav “Rudolf” Balazovjech, with both defendants being held without bail since February 2020.

Alexoui and Rudolf are facing attempted murder charges after being accused of being involved in the attempted murder of Panicos “Glykas” Panayiotou back in 2017.

Glykas, who had initially pointed to other suspects, later changed his story but at least two witnesses called by the prosecution failed to corroborate his narrative.

Hadjigeorgiou was one of those witnesses who retracted his story, saying he was forced to lie following threats made against his family. He eventually admitted lying to investigators, saying Glykas had urged him to give a statement to police saying Mavromichalis had asked Hadjigeorgiou to take Panayiotou out otherwise he would cause trouble for him.

But the case has been marred by many false starts and faux pas on the prosecution side as well as police investigators, with defence crying foul over the process as well as dropping a bombshell earlier this year when they alleged “serious criminal offences” involving police and possibly the Legal Department.

It turned out that Alexoui’s lawyer put together information following a major slip-up in the courtroom, when Glykas reportedly waved a piece of paper that was actually recent testimony from another individual that was never disclosed to the defence.

Prosecutors have played down the incident but the defence raised serious questions, alleging possible involvement between two prosecution witnesses, a police captain, a police officer, and potentially an official from the Legal Department.

Alexoui’s lawyer recently published a video in a rare and unprecedented move, where he spoke on the case and called for justice within the legal system, listing a number of questions and issues of concern that he said ought to be addressed in a fair manner.

An official report has not been issued over the hand grenade incident but police collected evidence from the scene and also reportedly obtained security camera footage from the area. Local media said investigators have not ruled out any scenarios.