President of Cyprus Dismisses Police Chief and Deputy

President Nikos Christodoulides of the Republic of Cyprus returned from New York and immediately dismissed the police chief and the deputy director of prisons. This personnel change was prompted by the escape of a convicted murderer serving a life sentence.

According to government spokesman Konstantinos Letimbiotis on the platform X, the president exercised his constitutional right to remove police chief Stelios Papateodoru and his deputy, Dimitris Dimitriou. He also instructed the Minister of Justice to take similar action regarding the acting director of prisons, Charalambos Philippidis.

In the same decree, Christodoulides appointed Themistocles Arnaoutis as the new police chief and Panikos Stavrou as his deputy.

Additionally, it has been reported that the president, in collaboration with the Minister of Justice, will convene a meeting of the Public Service Commission to appoint Konstantinos Constantinidis as the new deputy director of prisons.

These dismissals and appointments come on the heels of the escape of a 42-year-old life-sentenced convict in Paphos on Thursday afternoon. At the time of the escape, he was under the supervision of four prison officers and three members of a special police unit during a scheduled visit from the central prison to his family home.

It’s also worth noting that President Christodoulides was in New York all of last week, where he addressed the UN General Assembly.