Cyprus president sacks police chief over serial killings probe

Nicos Anastasiades, president of Cyprus, has sacked the country’s police chief over what he described as a failure to promptly investigate the disappearances of women and girls, after a suspected serial killer’s murders were discovered by accident.

No fewer than four women have been found murdered in the past three weeks and their bodies dumped in three locations west of the capital Nicosia.

A 35-year-old career army officer is also in custody and has confessed to seven killings.

Investigations are under way into three other disappearances, including those of two girls aged six and eight.

The magnitude of the crime was unknown when tourists accidentally found a bound body in a mine shaft flooded by heavy rain on April 14.

Police were accused of failing to investigate the disappearances properly when they were first reported.

Police have so far identified only one victim, Marry Rose Tiburcio, from the Philippines. She went missing with Sierra, her 6-year-old daughter, in May last year.

Anastasiades on Friday cited “apparent negligence” by police in failing to promptly investigate reports of missing persons, which he said led him to sack Zacharias Chrysostomou, the police chief.

“I was led to the unpleasant position of having to terminate your service as police chief of Cyprus,” Anastasiades wrote to Chrysostomou in a letter released to the media.

“The head of an authority, even if he does not bear personal responsibility, must assume the responsibility of restoring the damaged reputation of the body he leads.”

The development comes in the wake of the attacks and killings in some parts of Nigeria by armed bandits, herdsmen and Boko Haram.

Despite the pressures mounted on President Muhammadu Buhari to take decisive measures on the leadership of the armed force, not much result has been achieved.