THEODOROS Aristodimou, the founder and managing director of Aristo Developers and former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Cyprus, felt ill and could not attend a remand hearing before the Paphos district court on Friday.
He was admitted to Paphos general hospital with high blood pressure. Doctors decided he should remain there for treatment.
Aristodimou, who also did a stint as chairman of Bank of Cyprus, is the latest of several prominent citizens of Cyprus who fell ill when they faced the prospect of spending time behind bars.
He was among four individuals arrested on Thursday in connection with the demarcation of 177 land plots in Skali, Paphos.
It subsequently emerged that the plans for which the demarcation permits were issued were switched with new plans, which seemed to cede approximately 4,000m² previously designated as green space, back to his company, Aristo Developers.
The three others, including his wife, appeared in court as scheduled but the judge decided to adjourn the proceedings pending a medical certificate.
Some 200 employees of Aristo Developers assembled outside the court in a show of support to their boss.
Aristodemou had denied any wrongdoing, arguing that municipality employees, unfamiliar with regulations, had got their calculations wrong.
Is this sudden illness because “but this is Cyprus” didn’t work?
So predictable.
This hypertension/chest pains let-out wheeze is so commonplace here in Cyprus with big-shots being arrested as to pass almost unnoticed. Remember Lefkaritis who was eventually convicted of child sex crimes? At least to their credit the hospital medics in his case refused to be manipulated so as to avoid his arrest and he was shown the door.
All this play acting and melodrama is also to evoke sympathy from the public and, no doubt, the courts. It will be interesting to see whether he gets convicted and goes down. If so, it will be something of a first in the Cyprus justice system and may well indicate things to come for others charged with large-scale fraud, corruption, bribery etc. The CYTA pension fund land scam case is coming up fast and then quite likely criminal charges over culpability for the 2013 banking collapse and financial crisis. Convictions and jail time will be essential to restore public and investor confidence in Cyprus. Oh look, there’s another moufflon flying over the Troodos!
Mr T A joins an elite band of brothers who fall ill as they are about to be jailed or are let out of jail with only days to live, terminally ill, then undergo a miraculous recovery. In most cases the cause is high blood pressure or uncontrollable blood pressure, which sounds more serious. Here are a couple of examples:
Jackie Selebi, head of Interpol, jailed for a long time for accepting bribes from a drug lord. He recovered miraculously from terminal high blood pressure, when paroled and sent home to die.
Shabir Sheik, sent to jail for bribing Jacob Zuma, currently president of South Africa and still busy avoiding his own day in court, also recovered miraculously from uncontrollable high blood pressure, when paroled and sent home to die.
I foresee that this case in Cyprus will drag on and on.
No doubt this convenient delay will allow the brown envelopes to be dispatched to make all the bad things go away?