DUMB DUMB DUMB

Nice to know it's not just the American judicial system that's capable of blinding incompetance.

Star-Tribune:

Cyprus hunts for alleged Russian spy paymaster who jumped bail and disappeared

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS , Associated Press
Last update: July 1, 2010 - 11:56 AM

NICOSIA, Cyprus - Red-faced authorities in Cyprus searched airports, ports and yacht marinas Thursday in a hunt for a suspected Russian spy-ring paymaster who vanished after being allowed to walk free on bail.

Police also examined surveillance video from crossing points on the war-divided island, fearing that the suspect may have slipped into the breakaway north of the island, a diplomatic no-mans-land recognized only by Turkey.

Justice Minister Loucas Louca admitted that a judge's decision to release Christopher Robert Metsos "may have been mistaken" (ya think!?!?) but said authorities were examining leads on his possible whereabouts.

"We have some information and we hope that we will arrest him soon," Louca told reporters Thursday, without elaborating.

Metsos, 54, is wanted in the United States on charges that he supplied money to the spy ring that operated under deep cover in America's suburbs. Ten other spy suspects were arrested in the U.S. on Sunday and nine of them faced bail hearings later Thursday. A tenth suspect has already been denied bail and is being detained in the U.S.

Metsos' disappearance is a major embarrassment to Cyprus. The eastern Mediterranean island favored by tourists used to be a hotbed of Cold War intrigue, as spies converged at the crossroads of three continents — Europe, Africa and Asia. Authorities have promised to do everything possible to find the suspect who claimed he was a tourist traveling on a Canadian passport.

A man in Canada says the passport stole the identity of his dead brother.

Metsos was arrested Tuesday in Cyprus on an Interpol warrant while waiting to board a flight for Budapest, Hungary, but a Cypriot judge freed him on euro27,000 ($33,000) bail. Metsos failed to appear Wednesday for a required meeting with police, igniting the manhunt.