THE ALLEGED involvement of jailed murderer and rapist Antonis Prokopiou Kitas in the theft of the ex-President Tassos Papadopoulos’ body shows the need for stricter prison measures with support from all parties, Acting Prisons Director George Tryfonides said yesterday.

“I am determined to take all the measures that the situation calls for and more but people need to decide what they want in Cyprus: prisons or hotels,” Tryfonides said.

“The Prisons Director has very many powers, but he needs to be left alone to get on with his job,” he added.

Tryfonides said he had previously been criticised for not having a closed visits procedure in place, but “a few days ago I implemented the procedure for closed visits, and I received criticism for violating human rights and I don’t know what else”.

Closed visits mean the prisoner and visitor are separated by a glass partition and cannot make physical contact, a procedure usually used when there is reasonable suspicion that either the visitor or the prisoner have been trying to smuggle in unauthorised items such as mobile phones or drugs.

Tryfonides said that over recent years, friends and relatives had become used to doing things that in fact are illegal or against regulations. “As soon as you move to take that illegal ‘right’ away from them, they react” with criticism, complaints and threats of media exposure.

House Legal Affairs Committee chairman and DISY deputy Ionas Nicolaou wondered yesterday why the relevant authorities were not taking steps to prevent criminal activity by prison inmates.

Nicolaou said that “it is obvious that this (activity) is taking place with the help of people who are either working on prison premises or visit the prisons regularly.

“These actions cannot be carried out through occasional visits or occasional participation by certain individuals.”

He added: “We cannot allow prison officers to be blackmailed by inmates, and there is (also) no trust between prison officers. The law of silence reigns, but at the same time a godfather situation prevails within the prison walls.”

One practical measure would be to install a system that would disable mobile phones, Nicolaou said, which would eliminate the “widespread use” of phones inside the prison and prevent the masterminding of criminal activity by inmates, “the results of which we are seeing continuously”.

House Crime Committee chairman and AKEL deputy Yiannakis Thoma said that the current problem had existed for 20 years, and called for the upgrading and modernisation of the prisons to incorporate new technology for monitoring inmates and their visitors.

“The prisons are currently holding twice the number of inmates they were designed for, the buildings are old and unfit for their purpose, and the conditions for confinement are unacceptable”, Thoma said.

Career criminal Kitas – also known as Al Capone – was jailed for life in 1994 for the brutal abductions, rape and murders of Oksana Lisna, 20, and Christina Ahfeldt, 28 in 1993.

His escape from police custody in December 2008 while being treated in a private Nicosia hospital eventually led to six police officers being charged last month with abuse of power, failure to do their duty and concealing information, plus 12 other charges. The debacle also saw the resignation of then Justice Minister Kypros Chrysostomides and then Police Chief Iacovos Papacostas.

Kitas was interviewed for three hours by police yesterday in Nicosia Central Prisons, after being moved to solitary confinement on Tuesday night. His lawyer said he has denied any knowledge of or involvement in the Papadopoulos grave-robbing case.

A search carried out by CID and prison officers on Tuesday night uncovered a mobile phone with a prepaid card and an electronic personal organiser – containing names and telephone numbers – in a common area.

Tryfonides said that the electronic personal organiser “definitely” belonged to Kitas.