NEWS

At the cost of his life, he saved four other officers of the National Guard and the Government has belatedly – 12 years later – decided to pay due tribute to Captain Charalambos Charalambous. 

Following a proposal by the Minister of Defence, Charalambos Petridis, the Cabinet approved that posthumous honour is given to the Captain with the medal of altruism and self-sacrifice. 

The fatal incident took place on November 5, 2009 at 10:15 at an outpost on the Green line in Nicosia, near the former Cyta Headquarters in Paphos Gate. That was when a defective grenade was found in the hands of Lieutenant Charalambous. According to cadet Lieutenant George Christodoulou, who witnessed the incident, the grenade strangely ‘clicked’ as if the detonator was armed and then he saw the lieutenant take the grenade near his chest hiding it with his hands and body. 

According to him, the Lieutenant understood that the grenade would explode right away and he wanted to save the others. He wanted to save the other three children who were with him in the narrow, secluded ammunition depot. The explosion followed and the cadet along with the two soldiers were found outside the depot, an area covered in smoke, dust and debris. 

In a lawsuit filed by the lieutenant’s mother and sister in 2015, a court ruled that it accepted the family version that the grenade was defective and dangerous and thus compensated the family with 105,000 euros. The Lieutenant, who was promoted to the rank of Captain after his death, was found to have literally hugged the grenade as soon as he realised it was defective and was about to explode, prompting his colleagues to leave. Five seconds later, the lieutenant was dead.

Also read: November 5, 2009 | The conscious sacrifice of Lieutenant Charalambous to save his soldiers – VIDEO

With information from: philenews.com / Michalis Hadjivasilis