Inquest Into Death Of Two Cypriots

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28748, 20 November 1958, Page 20

Inquest Into Death Of Two Cypriots

(NJZ. Press Association—Copyright)

NICOSIA, November 18.

A witness told a resumed inquest on two Greek Cypriots in Famagusta today that he saw one of the two dead men beaten by British soldiers. The witness, a Greek Cypriot building contractor, Kyriakos Meshos, said he himself was beaten with gun butts. The inquest is on Panayiotis Christoforou, aged 37. and Andreas Louca, who died early last .month during the mass arrest operation after the murder of Mrs Catherine Cutliffe, wife of a British Army sergeant. Meshos said he was sitting at home when he heard shouts and soldiers broke in and arrested him. On arriving at a military camp, he saw Christoforou “pulled out and beaten before being taken to nearby tents.” An advocate’s clerk. Yiakoumis Charalambous, injured on the head during the same incidents, said: “Soldiers in the street pushed me into a truck, hitting me with sticks and guns. “When the truck was full I heard someone under me cry: ‘I am going to die. I can’t breathe.' “We told a soldier in the truck but he snapped: ‘Let him die’.” Sergeant’s Evidence A British Army witness. Sergeant Keith Scarrobb. stationed at Famagusta, contradicted evidence given by earlier Greek Cypriot witnesses. He said he was given a lift in an Army one-ton lorry travelling with an escort and three soldiers in the back. “I do not agree that the truck was packed with Greek Cypriots like sardines, or that they were beaten up or kicked.” he said. The inquest was adjourned until tomorrow. From Prague, the Communist-

led International World Federation of Trade Unions has sent a protest cablegram to the British Prime Minister. Mr Macmillan, describing the dismissal of Cypriot workers in Cyprus as “inhuman and arbitrary.” The federation, which claims to be 92,000,000 strong, stressed that it would give “full support to the struggle of the Cypriot workers and people for the success of their legitimate national demands.”