Convicted escaped murderer, 42-year-old Doros Theofanous, was back at the Central Prisons in an isolation cell on Monday.
The convicted double murderer was returned to prison shortly after 11am while crowds began to gather in spontaneous protest over the replacement by President Nikos Christodoulides of dismissed acting prison director Haris Phillipides by Constantinos Constantinou.
The vehicle transporting Theofanous broke through the demo at high speed, accompanied by police officers and another police car.
During the arrival of the prisoner, a police helicopter hovered over the area.
Earlier reports had said the re-arrested convict was to be brought before the Paphos District Court as police look into his escape, but it was later clarified that this was not a required procedure.
Theofanous was arrested on Sunday afternoon in the Limassol tourist area of Amathus. He escaped last Thursday after an approved return, under guard, to his family home in the village of Choletria. It has since been reported that the home visit entailed a gathering of 20 to 30 people, who are all being interrogated.
Disciplinary investigations are underway within the police and prisons departments to determine how the large number of persons was approved or disregarded. Protocol dictates that the list of persons present during a visit by a convict must be checked individual by individual, weeding out any with a criminal background or association, according to a Philenews report.
It appears the application for a home visit had initially been approved for seven people, which was later downsized to five, raising questions of how it turned into a ‘party’.
The killer had been under the guard of seven police and prison officers when he managed to slip away.
He was located after an intensive manhunt around 5.25pm on Sunday on the beachfront in Limassol.
It emerged he had gone to a kiosk where he purchased sim cards, whereupon the employee who recognised him from his mug shot, called him in.
Nothing untoward was found in his possession, police spokesman Christos Andreou reported, except a beach towel from a hotel.
He was unshaven and wearing a different outfit from the one in which he had left prison, reports said.
Theofanous had been dropped off in Limassol by a 26-year-old prison acquaintance, where he had been hiding out, first at an apartment inhabited by acquaintances, and later at an uninhabited flat.
The 26-year-old was later arrested and is currently being held in police custody. Three others arrested in connection with the escape have since been released.
Theofanous was convicted 13 years ago of the double murder of his partner Yulia Oporok, who was four months pregnant, and her three-year-old child. He received 24 and 35-year consecutive sentences for the crimes.
Crisis management centres had been set up at police headquarters and in the districts of Paphos and Limassol during the hunt for the escapee, amid speculation that he would likely aim to get away through the north.
In the wake of Theofanou’s re-arrest on Sunday evening, President Nikos Christodoulides announced the dismissal of the police chief and deputy chief, Stylianos Papatheodorou and Demetris Demitriou, and their replacement with Themistos Arnaoutis and Panicos Stavrou.
The acting director of prisons was also dismissed. The Public Service Commission is set to meet to appoint Constantinos Constantinides as acting director of prisons, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said on Sunday evening.
