Cyprus president fires police chief and deputy over the embarrassing escape of a convicted killer

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The president of Cyprus has fired the chief of police, his deputy and the acting director of the country’s central prisons complex. The move comes after the embarrassing escape of a convicted murderer while under guard during an eight-hour pass to visit family. A government spokesman posted on the social media platform X that President Nikos Christodoulides decided immediately on his return late Sunday from New York to replace Police Chief Stylianos Papatheodorou and his deputy Demetris Demetriou. Christodoulides wasted no time acting on his return following the escape of Doros Theophanous who is serving a life sentence for the 2011 murder of his 24-year-old pregnant partner and her 4-year-old daughter.