by Xinhua
NICOSIA — Unknown gunmen shot dead on Monday night a son of the owner of one of the most influential media groups in Cyprus.
The dead man is Antis Hadjicostis, son of Costis Hadjicostis, owner of Dias Media Group which owns a television station, a newspaper and several other publications.
Antis Hadjicostis, aged 43 and father of two, was the director general of the group.
Police said the victim was shot twice at close range while entering his house, a short distance away from the American and French embassies in an exclusive part of Nicosia.
The gunman got away on a high powered motorcycle driven by another man.
The father of the victim is considered by United Nations officials in Cyprus and some western foreign embassies as a political king-maker who can exert influence on a large portion of Greek Cypriots in connection with a future solution of the Cyprus problem.
Police said it was too early to make sure about the possible motives of the murder.
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It is understandable and correct for the police to say that the motives for the murder are uncertain. They, the police, in the position they hold, have an important role not to incite and further increase the distrust that outside influences are trying impose on the Cypriot people. I say Cypriot people as I deem them all to be Cypriots, whether of Turkish or Greek expression. The old Roman strategy, which the British government policy perfected on this small island, “Divide and Rule” is still trying to be utilised today, by external forces, firstly by way of the defeated “Annan Plan” and now by the pressure on all the Cypriots to accept an island artificially divided into two (by-zonal). The proposed defining factor will be race. Hardly a recipe for peoples on small island to live harmoniously together. The Cypriots have to retain cool heads and act with great discretion as their island, their freedoms are under great threat