Developments are expected in the case against 15 police officers over alleged failings in investigating the reports of missing women who were later discovered to have been murdered by Nicos Metaxas.
Police chief Stelios Papatheodorou has given the green light for the police complaints commission’s file on the case to be studied with a view to disciplinary proceedings, daily Politis reported.
The 35-year-old army officer, Nicos Metaxas, killed five women and two children over a period of two years. The killings emerged in April 2019, after the body of one of the women was found in a mine shaft at Mitsero.
Police came under heavy criticism for allegedly mishandling the cases of the women and the two girls when they were reported missing by friends and families, and for not treating the disappearances seriously.
April 14 will mark three years since the first body was discovered.
Politis reported that amongst the 15 is a senior police officer who will be asked to make statements before a three-party panel, consisting of a higher-ranking officer and two members of the legal services.
While details of the possible charges faced by the officers are not immediately available, it is understood that dereliction of duty is on the cards.
The police complaints commission had, in consultation with the legal service, in 2019 appointed four criminal investigators to probe possible responsibility of police officers.
Based on their findings, former attorney general Costas Clerides decided in May 2020 that 15 police officers would be charged with dereliction of duty.
Former police chief Kypros Michaelides said at the time that he would support the 15 officers who are facing prosecution over the handling of the Metaxas serial killing case, on the basis that they are innocent until proven guilty.
The police officers involved in the case will remain in their current positions on the presumption of innocence, Michaelides said, “and we must as a leadership stand by them”.
But in June 2021 Yiorgos Savvides, who succeeded Clerides as attorney general, reversed the decision to charge the officers citing difficulties in proving wilful and deliberate dereliction of duty.
The file was then forwarded by the police complaints commission to police for possible disciplinary action, Politis reported
By June 2019, police had recovered the remainder of the victims at the mine, in a nearby lake, in a field near a firing range, and at another lake some kilometres away.
Metaxas was sentenced in June 2019 to five consecutive life sentences for the premeditated murder of the five women and two concurrent life sentences for the murder of the two girls.
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