I am a Detective Sergeant No. 442 in the Cyprus Police stationed at C.I.D. Divisional Police H.Q. Kyrenia.

On Wednesday 19th November, 1958, at 0700 hours, with Detective Sergeant SMITH, I went to Kato Dhikomo Village where a Military cordon and search operation was in progress.

At about 1305 hours, in consequence of a message received, I went with Detective Sergeant SMITH to a single storey house on the western edge of the village which I now know to be the house of Kyriacos CHRISTODOULOU. On arrival, I saw that members of the Security Forces had surrounded the house. On going inside I saw that it was a four-roomed house with a central hall. I saw that furniture had been removed from the right hand room at the rear and placed in the hall. The floor of this room was tiled. I saw Sergeant SMITH, Army Officers in the room and an interpreter was kneeling on the floor near a rear window of the room at a spot where some of the floor tiles had been removed. I heard the interpreter shout in Greek “MATSIS, MATSIS, you are caught in this hide. There is no possibility of escape. Surrender yourself”. I then heard a muffled deep voice which appeared to come from under the floor, reply in Greek “I do not surrender”. The interpreter then said “How many men are you down there?” and a voice replied “Three”. The interpreter then said “Come up one by one, unarmed, and surrender”. The voice answered “Two persons are coming unarmed – do not shoot them”. The interpreter then said “What will you do?” The voice replied “I am thinking of what to do myself. If you don’t want to fight you had better leave the room”. I then left the hall and went out of the back door into the garden, followed by the other persons who had been in the room.

A minute or so later, I saw a man who I now know to be Andreas SOFIOPOULLOS, come out of the back window of the house with his hands raised. He was followed a moment later by a second man who I now know to be Costas CHRISTODOULOU, who also had his hands raised. I then saw Detective Sergeant SMITH who was in the garden, go up to these men with the Military and detain them. Shortly after this, I heard a rat-tat noise which sounded like a burst of automatic fire, coming from the direction of the house. I took cover and about a minute or two later I heard the sound of an explosion from the house, followed by a second similar explosion. The sounds were muffled and consistent with coming from underground.

A few moments later I saw Military personnel going into the house and two or three minutes later, I entered myself.

I entered the rear room which I had previously looked in and I saw that a concrete slab had now been removed from the spot where I had previously seen the tiles removed. I looked into a hole beneath the floor and saw that a hide had been constructed sized approximately 6 ft. X 4 ft. X 4ft. Deep. In this hole I saw the body of a man. I also saw two sub machine guns and other property.


(sgd) S. YIAVOUZ
Detective Sergeant No 442.