Cypriot referee's car torched

NICOSIA (Reuters) - A car used by Cypriot referee Leontios Trattos was set on fire early on Tuesday, police said, the second time he has been targeted in just over a year.





The incident was the latest in a string of threats and attacks against referees and their families which have led to calls for the officials to boycott games.

Police said the car, which was parked in the basement of Trattos's residence at an apartment block in a suburb of the capital Nicosia, was destroyed.

Authorities suspect the vehicle, a company car belonging to Trattos's employers, was doused with inflammable fluid and set alight.

One of the Mediterranean island's most high-profile referees, Trattos was also targeted in February last year when a bomb destroyed a car parked outside his home.

That incident led to a brief suspension of fixtures on the island.

The attacks have continued, however, and in January a bomb went off outside the home of a referee's mother. Last month a car belonging to a referee's wife was damaged by a pipe bomb.

There have been no injuries reported from any of the six attacks in just over a year.

In a statement to local media, Trattos, formerly head of the referees' association, expressed frustration that none of the cases had been solved by authorities.

"We hear the same lame comments of tracking down and punishing the guilty parties .. three or four days then pass and everything is forgotten," he said.

Although serious crime on the island is relatively rare against people, arsons and attacks against another person's property with improvised explosives are quite common.





(Reporting by Michele Kambas; Editing by Ed Osmond)


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