The Murder of Andis Hadjicostis

What happened to Andis Hadjicostis?

Andis Hadjicostis, 41, was the chief executive of the family-owned Dias media group, whose holdings included Sigma television, radio and newspapers. On the night of January 11, 2010, he was shot at close range outside his home in the Engomi area of Nicosia.

The killing immediately drew national attention because of his public role in Cypriot media. Investigators treated it as a planned attack rather than a spontaneous confrontation. The later prosecution alleged a coordinated operation involving surveillance, transport and the gunman.

This page reports the prosecution theory only where it was accepted by the court. It distinguishes convicted defendants from the cooperating participant who testified, and it does not extend guilt beyond the final judgments.

The victim and the Dias group

Hadjicostis led one of Cyprus's best-known private media organizations. Contemporary coverage described him as an executive closely involved in developing Sigma TV and modernizing the group. His death affected a family, colleagues and a media institution; this account does not reduce him to the defendants' alleged motive.

Early public speculation considered business, professional and personal explanations. Those possibilities were investigative questions, not established facts. The criminal case ultimately focused on a group connected to former Sigma presenter Elli, or Elena, Skordelli.

The investigation

The investigation identified a participant referred to in the European Court judgment as F.H. He admitted a role in the operation and gave evidence against the four defendants. He was not prosecuted and later entered witness protection. That decision became a central issue in the appeals.

Police also assembled communications, movements and other corroborating material considered by the Nicosia Assize Court. The defense challenged the reliability of F.H. and argued that his treatment gave him a reason to implicate others. The trial court heard those objections and assessed the witness during a proceeding that lasted almost three years.

The four defendants

The Nicosia Assize Court tried Elli Skordelli; her brother, Anastasios Krasopoulis, also reported as Tassos Krasopoulis; Andreas Gregoriou; and Grigoris Xenofontos. Transliterations of the Greek names vary across English-language reports, but the defendants and proceeding are the same.

The prosecution said Skordelli and Krasopoulis wanted to regain influence at Sigma and that the group organized the killing for that purpose. This is presented as the theory accepted by the domestic court, not as an independent claim about anyone's thoughts outside the evidence tested at trial.

Verdict and life sentences

On June 13, 2013, the Assize Court found all four guilty of premeditated murder and related offenses. Each received life imprisonment. Contemporary reports described the judgment as the culmination of one of Cyprus's most closely watched criminal trials.

The finding did not rest on a guilty plea. It followed a contested trial in which the court evaluated F.H.'s evidence alongside corroborating material. That distinction matters because later proceedings focused on whether relying heavily on an unprosecuted accomplice made the trial unfair.

The Supreme Court appeal

The convicted defendants appealed. On June 6, 2016, the Supreme Court of Cyprus dismissed the challenges and left the convictions and life sentences in place. The appellate result made the domestic criminal judgments final.

A final conviction does not erase legitimate scrutiny of procedure. Three defendants continued to argue that the use of F.H.'s testimony, and the Attorney-General's decision not to prosecute him, denied them a fair trial.

The 2022 European Court judgment

Grigoris Xenofontos, Anastasios Krasopoulis and Elli Krasopouli Skordelli took those complaints to the European Court of Human Rights. In Xenofontos and Others v. Cyprus, decided on October 25, 2022, the Court found no violation of Article 6.

The Strasbourg court examined whether the criminal proceeding remained fair even though F.H.'s evidence was decisive. It noted that the applicants knew his identity and account, could question him and the relevant police officers, and could challenge the alleged arrangement. The Court accepted the domestic finding that no advance deal had prompted his confession.

The ECHR did not decide the murder case again, impose a sentence or certify every factual assertion in the domestic judgment. Its task was narrower: determining whether Cyprus respected the applicants' Convention right to a fair trial. Its no-violation finding left the domestic convictions undisturbed.

Status as of September 2026

The case is solved and adjudicated in the criminal-law sense. Four defendants were convicted of premeditated murder, their appeals were dismissed, and the later ECHR challenge by three of them did not establish an unfair trial.

The ECHR judgment recorded the three applicants as serving life sentences in Nicosia Central Prison in 2022. No reliable source located in the review completed on September 19, 2026 established a later judgment overturning any of the four convictions. This page does not speculate about individual release eligibility or current prison placement beyond the sourced record.

Questions the record still raises

• How should courts evaluate testimony from an admitted participant who is not prosecuted?
• Which independent evidence most strongly corroborated F.H.'s account?
• How did the Supreme Court address the competing interpretations of the witness-protection decision?
• What later custody decisions, if any, have been published for each defendant?