Captain Nemo III

Recap of I-II.
In 1987 the office of Stravaraland’s President received a 13-page letter. It was signed by 'Commander Nemo', titled April Fool's Day and, among many other things, it threatened to release huge quantities of "Di-Tox-B7" (which actually does not exist) if the President did not send $15 million for collection at Stravaraland’s High Commission in London. The letter went on to threaten the island with massive destruction from nuclear powered contact lenses, baldness and traffic congestion; and offered details on how to have sex with a donkey.


After receiving the alarming threat against Stravaraland and future generations, and one year before the presidential elections, President Spyros Kyprianou immediately summoned the head of police and the interior minister to assess the credibility of the threat. Immediately, MI5 was called in since The Foreign Finger sometimes can be very helpful in dealing with such problems. For one year, and right up to the presidential elections, Stravaraland was inundated with the threats that Captain Nemo had so irrespectfully aired against The President and his people. What was the outcome of this story, you may ask.

Well, in May 1989, one year after the elections had already been lost to an upstart called George Vasileiou, Panos Koupparis (a British citizen of Cypriot origin, resident at the time in Cyprus) was arrested in London and put to trial with the following accusations:

Members of the jury, the prisoner at the
Bar, Panos Koupparis, is charged on an indictment containing
two counts. In the first count he is charged with blackmail,
the particulars of offence being that between the 1st day of
January 1987 and the 15th day of May 1987, with a view to
gain for himself, he made an unwarranted demand of US $15
million upon the High Commissioner for Cyprus, acting on
behalf of the Government of Cyprus, with menaces. In the
second count he is charged with attempting to obtain property
by deception, the particulars of offence being that on the
14th day of May 1987 he attempted to obtain dishonestly from
the High Commissioner for Cyprus, acting on behalf of the
Government of Cyprus, £25,000 in money with the intention of
permanently depriving the High Commissioner for Cyprus
thereof by deception, namely by falsely representing, (1)
that his true name for practical and everyday purposes was
Symeon Cambanellos; (2) that he then held a genuine intention
to assist the Government of Cyprus to detect poison injection
generators.
To this indictment he has pleaded not guilty and it is
your charge to say, having heard the evidence, whether he is
guilty or not guilty.


Panos Koupparis, despite his professed “insanity” or “being under the influence of psychotic drugs”, was found guilty in 1989 for attempted blackmail of the Cypriot government and was sentenced to serve 5 years in jail. The details of the trial can be found here

A website (associated with Koupparis and therefore not entirely objective) makes the case that he was a scapegoat to something bigger.

You can interpret this story any way you like. Any further information that can help us, and all the future generations of Stravaraland that were saved from Captain Nemo, understand what happened will be gratefully acknowledged.