Andreas Panagiotou

He was born in the village of Polystypos¹, in the Nicosia district, in 1928.

He was killed by the British with horrific torture in the Platres² interrogation rooms, on November 19, 1956.

Andreas Panagiotou finished the Polystypos primary school and worked as a laborer in the Mitsero mine. He joined EOKA from the beginning of the struggle together with his wife Kyriaki and they made their house available for the struggle. They helped distribute hand grenades manufactured in a workshop that the Organization set up in their village, and with which the guerrilla groups of the Pitsilia and Kykkos sectors and the sectors of Nicosia and Limassol were supplied. Their further involvement in EOKA actions was limited by those responsible, because the Organization used their house as the headquarters of the area, where the sector chief lived and where fighters escaping from detention ended up.

Andreas Panagiotou was arrested on November 8, 1956 after betrayal. The interrogator who interrogated him believed that he could extract information from him about the whereabouts of Digenis and for this reason tortured him to death.

In his report, the English military doctor Philip Parker, who determined the death of Andreas Panagiotou, states:

“ In the lower part of his abdomen there were two yellowish areas showing signs of decomposition. His face and neck were bruised and congested. There were also injuries on the knees, elbows, fingers and toes, thighs, mouth and lips. There was extensive bleeding in the mesentery and peritoneum and the abdomen and large intestine were full of blood. The small intestine was perforated and the left kidney was bruised. The left ribs from the fourth to the twelfth were broken and there was blood in the left hemithorax. There were bruises on the head and the cranial bone was thinner than normal. There was thick blood inside the brain. ”

Death was attributed to intracranial hemorrhage and heart and respiratory failure, due to blood clots in the heart and lungs.