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A 54-years-old Greek-Canadian who was arrested in Cyprus following the order of Interpol as being the 11^th man of a group, accused of espionage in the U.S.A., has disappeared without leaving any trace. It is believed that he was the treasurer of the group and is now reported missing.

Robert Christopher Metsos with Canadian passport was living in a hotel in Larnaca in Cyprus and was accused of espionage in the U.S.. He was arrested at the airport in Larnaca on Tuesday morning after Interpol notified the Cypriot police. The 54-years-old man was arrested at the airport, where he was waiting for his flight to Budapest. At the passport control the police officers found his name on the list of people who are not allowed to leave the Republic of Cyprus and held him.

Interpol on Saturday sent an international warrant for the arrest of Robert Christopher Metsos at the request of the U.S., where he was supposed to appear in court in New York under the accusations of espionage in favor of Russia and money laundering worth about 40,000 dollars. He had to be extradited to America at the time when the other ten members of the group were questioned in the U.S..

The man arrested was brought before the court in Larnaca, where his detention was requested for 30 days until the official documents are sent from Washington in Cyprus. Then Minister of Justice and Public Order of Cyprus had to sign the procedure for sending Metsos in New York. But the lawyer suspect spy succeeded in convincing the court to leave him free on bail in the amount of 20,000 dollars and the obligation to submit his travel documents and to appear every day to the central police station in Larnaca.

Late evening yesterday the arrested disappeared from the hotel. He has paid the bail and has submitted his travel documents in order to be released under limited conditions and this morning he had to be present at the police station to sign. However this did not happen! According to the authorities of Cyprus the accused of spying may have escaped to the Turkish Cypriot part of the island or went by ferry to Latakia in Syria.

Metsos arrived in Cyprus on June 17 and stayed in a resort hotel with high girl who was probably a Bulgarian or Russian quite younger than him. The woman who was about 28 years old was constantly with him, writes the Gurardian. According to the authorities Metsos is the treasurer of the group of captured spies, because what he was doing was to take money to group members. According to the hypotheses Metsos has received from a Russian agent money, which he buried in a park in Northern Virginia where other arrested members of the group went later and dug up the money.

According to the investigation the Russian spies have used false documents since 1990 and it is believed that they have posted pictures on the Internet, which contained secret codes. They have also sent texts written with "sympathetic" ink to communicate with each other. Charges against them are for espionage and money laundering, for which they can be sentenced to five and twenty years respectively.

International news agencies commented harshly on the blunder of the Cyprus police and the decision for the suspected in espionage Metsos to be left free on bail and having the obligation to sign the police every day. An article of the Associated Press says that FBI and the U.S. Ministry have not comment on the case, but it notes that the FBI have been collecting informanion for ten years, while what is not said is that Cypriot police did not give it the due importance.