The corpse of the former Cyprus president, Tassos Papadopoulos, has been recovered by police three months after it was mysteriously snatched from the grave.

The body was found dumped at a cemetery in a suburb of Nicosia late on Monday following an anonymous telephone tip-off to police on the eastern Mediterranean island.

Mr Papadopoulos's grave was robbed on December 11 – the eve of the first anniversary of his death – in a crime that baffled Greek Cypriots.

His coffin was raided at night during a thunderstorm and was discovered empty the next morning by a member of the former president's personal guard, who went each day to light a candle at his grave.

Papadopoulos, a heavy smoker who died of lung cancer aged 74, was president from 2003 to 2008 during which time Greek Cypriots rejected a plan to reunify the island, and joined the European Union.