Motive Murky in Cyprus Body-Snatching Case

ATHENS, Greece (March 9) -- The motive remains a mystery, but police in Cyprus say they have discovered the stolen corpse of Tassos Papadopoulos, the island's former president.

The bizarre body-snatching saga has captivated the war-divided island since last December, when robbers raided Papadopoulos' grave, exhumed his coffin and then lugged his corpse away, leaving no leads behind.

For three months, authorities scoured the tiny Mediterranean island, searching for clues and suspects on both sides of Cyprus, which is divided between Greek and Turkish parts. FBI, Interpol and Israeli agents were also called in to help crack the case -- all to no avail.

Then, on late Monday, an anonymous caller telephoned authorities and the Papadopoulos family with a tip-off: a body had been dumped at a cemetery in the Nicosia suburb of Strovolos.

Dozens of police scrambled to the site along with three of Papadopoulos' adult children.

Officials refused to comment on the state of the remains, yet by daybreak on Tuesday and after a frenzy of forensic tests, authorities confirmed the body's identity.

"We have received the DNA test results, and the body is that of the late president," police spokesman Michalis Katsounodos said.

Papadopoulos, a canny, clever and at times charismatic British-trained barrister, was one of the most divisive and powerful figures in Cyprus politics.

After fighting British colonial rule as the leader of the EOKA guerrilla group, Papadopoulos emerged on Cyprus' turbulent political landscape, assuming leadership of his country in 2003. A year later, he ushered Cyprus into the European Union but then swayed his compatriots to reject a United Nations-brokered peace plan to reunite the island.

U.S. opprobrium over his stance -- and over his legal work for the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic -- left Papadopoulos unruffled.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish Cypriot forces invaded the island after a coup by supporters of union with Greece.

With the Greek and Turkish communities locked in a standstill over complex reunification talks, the bizarre body-snatching case -- on the eve of the first anniversary of Papadopoulos' death -- has set off intense speculation over the identity of the robbers and whether they may have been politically or ethnically motivated.

Cyprus' RIK state-run television station, however, chose to dampen conspiracy theories on Tuesday, indicating that authorities were "hot on the trail" of at least one Greek Cypriot convict suspected of orchestrating the macabre heist. His objective: seeking ransom from one of Cyprus' most affluent families.

RIK said investigators were examining the telephone booth where the anonymous caller placed the tip-off call, hoping to collect evidence or fingerprints that would identify the caller.

Papadopoulos' body was stolen from a cemetery in the south section of Nicosia, where the body snatchers left mounds of fresh earth after lifting a 550-pound slab of black-colored marble encasing the tomb and then digging out the ex-president's coffin. They covered the grave with lime in an obvious attempt to erase their tracks.

Katsounodos said the crime was "deliberate and carefully planned."