NICOSIA - A defence witness in the murder trial of Andis Hadjicostis will be cross-examined tomorrow, Wednesday, after the prosecution requested a postponement to examine evidence.
Panayiotis Karasavvaides from Piraeus, Greece, who served in the Greek Special Forces between 1993 and 1994, was brought to Cyprus by defence lawyer Roberto Vrahimis as an expert witness to re-enact an alleged event presented to the court by prosecution witness Fanos Hadjigeorgiou, who confessed to being the getaway driver in the murder.
Hadjigeorgiou, who was initially charged but is now a prosecution witness under police protection, claimed that he disposed of a bag of clothes – whioch has never been found - in the UN buffer zone on the night of the murder within a timeframe of 15 minutes.
Karasavvaides testified that during the re-enactment he was instructed by Vrahimis’ associate to reach the spot in the buffer zone where Hadjigeorgiou claimed he had left the bag and to monitor the exact time needed to complete the task at night.
Karasavvaides said that the completion of the task was particularly difficult due to the darkness, the rough terrain and thorn bushes in the area, as well as trenches created by the dried-out river.
He said that finding the spot in the dark, depositing the bag and returning to his starting point took precisely 34’17’’ and that it could not have been achieved in less time even by someone who had received special training.
After a twenty-minute recess, prosecutor Elena Kleopas requested a postponement of the procedure until tomorrow to allow time to examine the evidence brought forward by the defence.
Vrahimis objected, stating that the witness would be leaving for the airport at 12pm tomorrow and hence there would not be sufficient time for the cross-examination.
Nevertheless, the judge granted Kleopas’ request and postponed the trial until 10am tomorrow morning.
Elena Skordelli, her brother Tasos Krasopoulis, Grigoris Xenophontos and Andreas Gregoriou, all deny murdering the media tycoon.