Platon Stylianou

He was born in the village of Vouni¹, Limassol province, on October 26, 1922.

He died on August 4, 1958 from torture by the British, at the Laniteo Gymnasium² of Limassol.

Platon Stylianou finished primary school in his village. He lived in Limassol and worked at a KEO gas station as a storekeeper. He kept his activity in EOKA very secret, because he had six small children, the eldest of whom was only twelve years old.

On July 24, 1958, Stylianou was arrested by British soldiers and Turkish auxiliaries and taken to his home with his hands tied. After cordoning off the house, they began brutally beating him and ransacking the house causing damage. At that moment, an English patrol was passing outside the house, who ran to his wife’s cries, untied his hands and took him with them to the Laniteo Gymnasium, where other Greek citizens were also being held.

On August 3, 1958 his wife was able to locate him and speak to him from behind the barbed wire. He asked her to get him some clothes. The next day he was brought dead with his claws and whiskers removed and his clothes torn, wet and muddy.

The conclusion of the English military doctor Bond, who performed a post mortem on the body of the hero, is as follows:

“On the body of the deceased I found external bruises on the chest, abdomen and left leg and internal bruises on the mesentery and other abdominal organs. In the brain there was blood in the subarachnoid region, but the source of the bleeding was not ascertained even after the brain and arteries were removed and examined. Death was caused by spontaneous hemorrhage in the subarachnoid region of the brain. There were also signs of vomiting with signs of suffocation.”

The inhuman cold killing of Platon Stylianou caused anger and indignation among the people, who, despite the house arrest imposed in Limassol during his funeral, poured into the streets and kneeled down to applaud the passage of his body.