Ex President of Cyrus vandalised and body stolen on eve of anniversary of his death.Police is baffled.

Former Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos.The now-empty grave of former Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos after vandals stole his body overnight.Vandalised: Policemen investigate near the grave of former Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos today after his corpse was stolen overnight



An man looks at the grave of former Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos at a cemetery in the Deftera suburb of Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Dec. 11, 2009. Grave robbers have stolen the corpse of former Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos from a suburban graveyard during the night, Cyprus police said Friday, a day before the first anniversary of the statesman's death. A bronze plaque at right shows Tassos Papadopoulos



Police investigate the grave of former Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos at a cemetery in Deftera suburb of Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Dec. 11, 2009. Grave robbers have stolen the corpse of former Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos from a suburban graveyard during the night, Cyprus police said Friday, a day before the first anniversary of the statesman's death.



The corpse of former Cyprus president Tassos Papadopoulos has been stolen on the eve of the first anniversary of his death.

Grave robbers worked overnight in torrential rain, lifting a marble slab weighing 250kg before unearthing the coffin, police said yesterday.

They sprayed grey paint across the tombstone in Deftera village cemetery, near Nicosia, to obscure the name and birth date of the hardline ex-leader of the Greek Cypriot south.

A former bodyguard who visited the tomb found piles of earth by the graveside and an empty casket.

No one has claimed responsibility and the vandals' motivation was unclear.

'I am appealing to the public to remain calm in the light of this provocation. I cannot describe this act any other way,' Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias said from Brussels, where he was attending an EU summit.

'This is a sacrilege,' he told reporters. 'It is an immoral and condemnable act which is a blight to our culture and respect for our dead.'

The grave was thought to have been emptied overnight with the vandals shifting a 250 kg slab of marble covering the tomb before digging into the grave.

Vandals left a Greek Orthodox icon placed in the casket by relatives when Papadopoulos was buried.

Papadopoulos was president of Cyprus from 2003 to 2008, losing his bid at re-election to Christofias, a former coalition partner in his centre-left government.

During his term, he led Greek Cypriot rejection of a United Nations reunification blueprint on Cyprus, split in a 1974 Turkish invasion after a brief Greek inspired coup.

Papadopoulos was admired by many Greek Cypriots for standing up to the international community and rejecting the plan.

For some others, he sowed division in the Greek Cypriot community.

Christofias is now engaged in talks with the Turkish Cypriot community on reuniting the Mediterranean island as a bizonal bicommunal federation.

Papadopoulos's family said they would go ahead as planned with a religious service commemorating him tomorrow.

'This sacrilege, apart from the sadness and anger it has caused, cannot in any way bury the politics and the legacy which Tassos Papadopoulos left behind,' it said in a statement.

'Wherever he is now, his voice will continue to be heard during these difficult times for our national cause.'

A heavy smoker, Papadopoulos died at the age of 74 on December 12 2008.

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