Three of the four remains of heroes were found in the Agios Nikolaos cemetery

The process of exhuming the remains of the four heroes, Charalambos and Anastasis Christofis, Pantelis Charalambous and Christakis Kobous, who were murdered by EOKA II on July 16, 1974, is still in progress today. Three remains have been found, while efforts are being made to locate them elsewhere remains of persons, who were also murdered during the coup.

In his statements, the head of the scientific exhumation team, Xenophon Kallis, said that the exhumation of the remains is done by decision of the Limassol Provincial Court and scientists from Liverpool John Moores University are participating in it.

"The scientific procedures of the exhumation, identification and return of the remains, based on the issuance of the decree, were assigned to the Commissioner of the Presidency", he said and added that "the genetic tests will be carried out by the Forensic Genetics laboratory of the Institute of Genetics and Neurology, by the team of Professor Marios Kariolos".

So far, he continued, three remains have been located and removed, while the search is on for the fourth, which according to all accounts is buried in the mass grave, which is located on the northwest side of the Agios Nikolaos cemetery.

Mr. Kallis noted that at another point another "excavation effort is being carried out concerning the identification of the remains of a member of the reserve, who was murdered in 1974 during the coup, in the area of ​​the village of Episkopi Limassol, together with three others".

Asked about it, he stated that, after the exhumation, "we take the bones and personal items to the anthropological laboratory, there they are washed and the anthropological tests are carried out to determine the age, sex, injuries".

"When the anthropological examinations are completed, we deliver skeletal samples to the Institute of Genetics and Neurology for DNA extraction, which will then be compared with the DNA of the families and we proceed with the identification, if there is compatibility," he added.

If and as long as no scientific problems arise, he noted, the process until the remains are handed over to the relatives, "is a matter of a few weeks rather than months."

Source: KYPE