Spyros Chajigiakoumis

Born in the village of Kythrea¹, Nicosia province, in 1932.

Died from torture by English interrogators, on October 16, 1958.

His son Giannis was renamed Spyros after his father's death.

Spyros Chajigiakoumis finished the primary school of Kythrea and was a farmer. He worked secretly and quietly in the EOKA struggle.

In early October 1958, house arrest was imposed in all seven parishes of Kythrea and searches followed.

On October 16, the restriction was repeated, during which, along with the English, a traitor in a mask was also roaming around. After the soldiers gathered the men in Kefalovrysos², they began to raid the houses indiscriminately. All the men were led in front of the masked man, who pointed out the fighters. Thirty people were arrested, including Spyros Chajigiakoumis. The soldiers took him to his house for searches. There they asked him to move a large pile of branches, which he had transported, to fence off the area next to his house, where he would put his flock. He refused. He was then transferred to a warehouse outside the village, where interrogations continued, and from there to Nicosia, where he was tortured.

The house arrest lasted eight days. On the eighth day, the soldiers transported the dead Spyros Chajigiakoumis to the village and headed for the cemetery. The villagers, who realized the British intentions to bury him, rushed into the streets, ignoring the restriction, snatched the dead man from their hands and carried him to the church. His legs were pierced and his head was crushed.

At his burial, which took place at gunpoint, the priest deliberately did not pour soil into the coffin so that the dead man could be exhumed at night for an autopsy, which the British had not performed as planned.

However, the grave was guarded by both soldiers and a helicopter for several days, and the exhumation was impossible. His family then went to court, but the English did not allow the exhumation. And the reason is self-explanatory.