Cyprus police have detained three men for the theft of the body of former president Tassos Papadopoulos. It was recovered on Monday, three months after being mysteriously snatched from the grave.
 

Police found the body at a cemetery in a Nicosia suburb, near its original burial place, following an anonymous tip-off. DNA identification tests were carried out overnight and a police spokesman has since confirmed that the body is indeed that of Mr Papadopoulos.

Grave robbers stole the corpse from inside the coffin on 11 December 2009, one day before a memorial service was due to be held to mark the first anniversary of the 74-year-old president's death from lung cancer. Police said at the time that the robbery was carefully planned, with the perpetrators taking precautions to cover their tracks. It is unclear what the motive for the macabre theft was.

A dispute has now arisen between Justice Minister Loucas Louca and the Papadopoulos family. The minister claims ransom money was demanded by the body snatchers, but not paid. However, a family spokesman phoned in to a state television news programme to deny any such demand had been received.

The minister, meanwhile, has ruled out political motives or the involvement of the divided island's Turkish Cypriots. He gave no clues as to the identity of the perpetrators, citing the ongoing police investigation as a reason for his silence.

Mr Papadopoulos, who fought against the British colonial power in Cyprus in the 1950s, was president of Cyprus from 2003 to 2008 and made several political enemies during his lifetime. In 2004, he led Greek Cypriots in rejecting a United Nations plan to reunify the country. Turkish Cypriots voted in a similar referendum to back the UN plan, which ultimately failed. Later, the Greek part of the island, recognised officially by most of the international community as Cyprus, joined the EU without the Turkish dominated north.