IT APPEARS that convicted murderer and rapist Antonis Prokopiou Kitas, a.k.a. Al Capone, has made the humiliation of the police and the Central Prison authorities his life’s mission.

Two suspects were remanded in custody by the police yesterday, in connection with theft of Tassos Papadopoulos’ remains last December, with the third suspect in the case being Kitas, who allegedly masterminded the operation.

Police could have been spared their latest embarrassment at the hands of Kitas if his alleged involvement in the crime was covered up. We know this could never have happened, but it might have been in the police’s greater interest to have kept the arch-criminal’s name out of the case, if only to protect the force’s standing. The impression now created is that even in the high security wing of the prison, irrepressible Kitas continues to torment of the authorities.

This is the lifer who stayed in a private hospital for six months, in the knowledge of the police hierarchy and the prison authorities. He had all mod cons in his room and his wife regularly stayed the night, while the taxpayer footed the bill for 24-hour police guard.

He was supposedly awaiting approval from the medical council to go abroad for treatment, even though he could have been treated in Cyprus. In Cyprus, we are so sensitive about human rights that even a man serving a life sentence for two rapes and two murders was entitled to go abroad for medical treatment.

The scandal was uncovered only after he escaped from his room and on the same night was involved in a shoot-out with police in the centre of Nicosia. He avoided arrest and was on the run for over a month, before the police finally caught up with him. Policemen and prison officials are currently on trial in connection with his escape which also led to the resignations of the Justice Minister and Chief of Police.

Despite the havoc he has wrought, it appears prison authorities never learned their lesson and gave him enough free rein to become a suspect in other criminal activities. Perhaps the idea of ‘maximum security’ for convicts does not exist at Nicosia Central Prisons, or maybe prison authorities are too frightened to apply it. Perhaps the general laxness in enforcing rules that is evident in most aspects of Cyprus life is also prevalent at the prisons as well.

But unless the authorities – the Justice Ministry, police command and prisons administration – get their act together, Kitas will carry on exposing their abject weaknesses and embarrassing the state in the process. A state that cannot exercise any control over a convict in prison cannot inspire great confidence among its citizens.