Police chief appoints new investigator in escaped convict case

Police chief Themistos Arnaoutis has appointed a new investigator for the case of the escaped convict, to avoid possible issues over transparency, it was reported on Tuesday.

According to police spokesman Christos Andreou, the original investigator worked at police criminal investigation department (CID) headquarters.

However, the new CID head is Charalambos Filippides, who was himself the deputy prison director and implicated in the scandal.

Filippides was fired from his position at the prison just over a week ago, after convict Doros Theofanous escaped guards during a home visit while serving a life sentence for the double murder of his pregnant partner and her three-year-old daughter.

Though police are carrying out a disciplinary investigation on its own members, Andreou said as the original investigator would have been Filippides as their boss, it was decided to replace them so as to avoid any conflict of interest.

Theodorou had a seven-team guard while visiting his family home in Choletria, Paphos. It was made up of three police officers (from the rapid response unit) and four prison guards. All have been suspended.

The police chief was also fired and replaced with Arnaoutis, as was the deputy police chief.