Cyprus Minister of Justice resigns

Kypros Chrysostomides, Cyprus Minister of Justice and Public Order, resigned today. President Demetris Christofias accepted his resignation.

Chrysostomides’s resignation comes in the wake of last week’s escape, from a private hospital, of prisoner Antonis Prokopiou Kitas, who was serving a life sentence for rape and murder.

This was the second time, within a few days, that Chrysostomides had submitted his resignation to the President. President Christofias did not accept his resignation the first time, hours after Kitas had escaped.

Kitas was sentenced to life imprisonment at the age of 28, in 1994, for the brutal rapes and murders of Oksana Lisna, 20, and Christina Ahfeldt, 28.