Thanasis Nicolaou was murdered because he uncovered a drug ring in the army, his mother told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), as she accused the state of covering up the case.
The slain soldier’s mother spoke a day after the Attorney General announced that public prosecutors found no criminal responsibilities in a fresh probe into the murder case which took place in 2005.
“An obvious crime was covered up,” Andriana Nicolaou argued, stressing that the family is determined to proceed with hiring private investigators.
“Many persons are involved in this murder; drug dealers and criminal rings in the army. My son understood that drug dealing was taking place in the army and when they noticed they told him to join the ring. A kid that I raised in the Greek community of Australia, with values and principles, inside the Church,” she said.
Thanasis refused to join, his mother added and came home “begging” her to help him leave the army. “I didn’t manage to do so and in two days they brought my dead child to me and told me that he fell from a bridge.”
Referring to the Attorney General, Nicolaou said that, “he who was responsible washed his hands and gave absolution to both the murderers and those who should have done their job properly and did not do it.
“It is a disgrace and a shame, for those involved in this case,” she continued and asked how can a state leave a crime unsolved “and a mother struggling for so many years.
“This struggle is not for me, it is for all of us, because this country has been stained by corruption and the clean-up should begin,” she added.
The family had filed a lawsuit against the Republic of Cyprus for damages in connection with an alleged incomplete investigation and human rights violations at the Nicosia District Court.
Thanasis’ body was found under a bridge in Alassa in 2005, and his death was deemed by the army and police as a suicide.
But after his remains were exhumed in 2021 over suspicions of foul play, further autopsies showed he had been beaten and strangled.
One of the investigators charged with carrying out the third inquiry into his death said last year that criminal acts had been committed.
However, on Tuesday, June 27, Attorney General Yiorgos Savvides announced that state investigators found no criminal responsibilities, in a new probe into the case.
Read more:
No criminal responsibilities in Thanasis Nicolaou case, AG says
