Cyprus justice minister says he believes alleged Russian spy has fled island

Cyprus official: Russian spy has fled island

NICOSIA, Cyprus — After eluding a dragnet extending from airports to yacht marinas, the suspected paymaster for a Russian spy ring nabbed in America has likely fled this Mediterranean resort island, the Cypriot justice minister said on Friday.

Loucas Louca told the Associated Press in an interview that he thinks Christopher Metsos — who disappeared after being released on bail this week — will probably never be apprehended on the island because he is no longer here.

“I believe he’s not in Cyprus, that’s my belief,” he said.

Metsos, 54, is wanted in the United States on charges that he supplied money to a spy ring that allegedly operated under deep cover in America’s suburbs. He disappeared Wednesday after being granted bail.

Louca said Metsos was arrested Tuesday after Interpol, the international police agency, issued a notice requesting his arrest. He was trying to board a flight to Budapest, Hungary, with his girlfriend at the time, he said.

The woman was allowed to board the flight since there was no Interpol notice regarding her, Louca said.

Metsos arrived in Cyprus on June 17, traveling as a tourist on a Canadian passport, which a man in Canada has said stole the identity of his dead brother. Louca said Metsos had been with his girlfriend during his stay on the island, but could not say whether the couple had arrived together.

Investigators have retrieved Metsos’ laptop computer from his Larnaca hotel room, but have not checked its contents, he said. He said police would hand the laptop over to U.S. authorities when they request it.

The only other item investigators found in the hotel room were Metsos’ slippers, Louca said.

Louca strongly defended Cypriot authorities’ handling of the affair, which left the government deeply embarrassed and stung by rumors, touched off by the island’s close ties with Russia, that it was somehow complicit in Metsos’ disappearance.

“I feel strongly about the fact that Cyprus police have put enormous effort into arresting the suspect and the interested parties are aware of that,” he said. “If we wanted him (Metsos) to evade, as we have been accused, we wouldn’t have tried as hard to arrest him in the first place.”

In the ethnically divided island’s Greek-speaking south, tens of thousands of Russians own mansions and offshore accounts, read Russian-language newspapers and send their children to Russian schools. The island is also a popular destination for Russian capital because of low taxes.

Ties extend to the very top. The island’s Greek Cypriot president Dimitris Christofias, the only communist head of state in the European Union, earned a doctorate in history in Russia and speaks the language.

Christofias counts on Russian political support in reunification talks with the breakaway Turkish Cypriots and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to visit the island in October.

Cyprus was ethnically split in 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup by supporters of uniting the island with Greece.

Louca conceded that the court’s decision to free Metsos on bail was “a mistake,” but said that he and Attorney General Petros Clerides were planning to file an appeal before Metsos’ disappearance made it pointless.

The minister insisted that police could not put Metsos under strict surveillance to prevent him from disappearing because once the court freed him on bail, any such move would breach privacy laws.

“Monitoring him (Metsos) would consist of infringement of human rights and would be illegal,” he said.