To most viewers of Cyprus’s Sigma TV, Elena Skordelli was just another pretty face in an endless schedule of soaps, game shows, and cosy sofa chat.

Yet behind the blonde hair and girlish voice there lay a steely desire to get to the top: having started her career as a daytime TV lifestyle guru, she fought her way to a coveted job as an evening news anchorwoman.
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Ms Skordelli is alleged to have arranged the revenge killing of Andis Hadjicostis, 43, a popular and well-respected broadcasting mogul who was gunned down outside his villa in Nicosia’s diplomatic quarter on the evening of January 11th.

The head of Dias Group, the largest media company in Cyprus, his otherwise inexplicable execution was initially thought to have been linked to the divided island’s long-unresolved political dispute. Shell casings believed to have from Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus were found at the scene of the crime, prompting speculation that it was connected to his firm’s opposition to UN-backed plans to reunite the island.

Now, however, detectives have charged both Ms Skordelli, her brother Tassos Krasopoulos, and an alleged hitman with the killing, after a fourth accomplice, Theophanis Hadjigeorgiou, was arrested and agreed to give state’s evidence.

They believe that Ms Skordelli was motivated by both revenge for her sacking and a desire to become a media mogul herself by siezing control of Dias. Having already acquired a 20 per cent stake jointly with her brother, she attempted to buy out other Dias shareholders after Mr Hadjicostis’s death.

Crikey!