Grandmothers Of Crime To Appear In Court – Two Of Them “Escape”
President Christofias has kept his promise never to allow immoral and criminal gambling to be promoted on the island, as the first alleged major gambling criminals are due to appear in court this month.
The 44 elderly women aged 72 to 99 years-old were arrested in 2009 when a heavily-armed crime squad raided a house where they were engaging in the 'immoral and criminal activity' of playing cards.
All of them will now have to appear in court with the exception of two of the suspects. Unfortunately for the prosecution, two of the 44 “grandmothers of crime” escaped “justice” by uncooperatively dying from natural causes.
According to one of the accused, 99-year-old Eytichia Yiasoumi from Limassol, two more elderly women suspects are are now in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimers and they don't remember anything about the case.
Even though Yiasoumi told Sigma TV last week that she had no intention of appearing in front of the court, in a new statement to journalist Lukas Spatharis she said:
"If I am able to walk, I will appear, if not let them come to me," adding “I was just killing time with my friends, let them find me guilty and put me in jail, so what?”
She then proceeded to beat the journalist at cards.
The prosecution is expected to present the court with 90 euros in small notes and coins, 830 playing cards and 536 poker chips that were confiscated by police during the raid, on November 26, 2009, as evidence. If convicted, the pensioners could face up to six months in jail.
Christofias, who is a communist of the old Soviet Union school, made the promise of cracking down on gambling when he was criticized by the opposition for blocking all efforts for the licensing of casinos in Cyprus two years ago.
Photo Eytichia Yiasoumi From SigmaLive.com
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