Cyprus police arrested three people on Tuesday night on suspicion of being involved in the stealing of the remains of ex-President Tassos Papadopoulos.

Their arrest came 24 hours after the police acting on anonymous information discovered the remains in a cemetery, not far from where they had been stolen on December 11 last year.

Police sources said one of those arrested is a prison convict, serving a life sentence for murder, who is thought to have masterminded the stealing.

The other two are his brother and a man from India.

The sources said the Indian man was found to be in possession of several forged passports.

They added that the suspect has already given a statement in which he described how the culprits planned and carried out the stealing of the ex-President's remains.

He is alleged to have said that they did it both for ransom and to secure a favorable treatment of the convict by the prison authorities.

The suspect told the police that they had originally demanded a ransom of 200,000 euros.

When the family of the ex-President, acting on police advice refused to pay, they demanded 100,000 euros and then 50,000 Euros.

A police source had told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that the man who had given the tip off which led to the discovery of the remains spoke in Greek with a foreign accent.

The police source also said the culprits had lost their nerve.

"We were very near to cracking the case. They felt the breath of the Police over their neck and hurried to get rid of the remains," the police source had told Xinhua.

Justice Minister Loukas Louka told a press conference that the culprits had acted for money.

"There was no political motive," Louka said.

He added that the police had secured information right from the beginning that the theft of the body was for ransom.

A spokesman for the Papadopoulos family denied a ransom request was made, but the minister stood by his statement. He made it clear that the family did not pay ransom on the advice of the police.

"The public has every right to know the motives, because the stealing of the remains had caused political tension," said Louka.

Papadopoulos was President of Cyprus from February 2003 to February 2008, when he was defeated by his former coalition partner Demetris Christofias.

He died 10 months later of cancer, at the age of 74.

He was considered to be a hard-liner on the Cyprus problem. In April, 2004 he led a campaign which culminated in the rejection of a United Nations blueprint for a solution to the Cyprus problem by a 76 percent majority of Greek Cypriots.

The vote had also brought about a deep political split, with the ex-President insinuating that those who had voted in favor of the plan were less patriotic.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey militarily intervened and occupied the north of the island following a coup by a group of Greek officers.

Negotiations are now under way between President Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat to reach a peace settlement.