Filenews 12 November 2022 - by Fanis Makridis
The Police present the position of the three prison guards, who were arrested the other night as part of the investigation into the murder of Turkish Cypriot Tansu Cidan in the Central Prison.
This follows from what was reported yesterday to the District Court of Nicosia, in the context of the request of the ICF of Nicosia for the issuance of an 8-day detention order, which was approved after a marathon procedure.
The head of the investigation team in this case, Yiannos Giannakou, said the three staff members of the Prisons Department are suspected of offences of (a) conspiracy to commit a felony, (b) manslaughter and (c) neglect of official duty.
In fact, according to what was reported during the judicial process by the Police, testimonies show that the three persons had knowledge of the serious injury, but did not do the right thing to prevent the worst. He even expressed the position that if what was required was done, "then today the victim would be alive".
From the testimony presented to the Court, it appears that on 27/10/2022 the three suspects were the on-duty prison guards between the hours of 12:45 - 19:00. As is well known, Cidan's death was confirmed at 21:50 in the evening of the same day.
The Nicosia ICF officer said that around 15:00 the victim had pressed a notification button in his cell to ask for help. Then the first and second suspects went to the spot. The third suspect was the shift supervisor and was in the jailers' office. In broad terms, what the Police presented on the basis of visual material from the closed circuit of the prisons, as well as testimonies, show the two prison guards talking to the victim at the moment when he had very serious injuries, but being persuaded to leave, by the Kurdish prisoner who is the main suspect for the crime.
The latter had allegedly assured them that he would treat the victim himself and that Cidan caused his own injuries due to family problems. Also, according to the testimony, the victim allegedly asked the two prison guards (first and second suspect) to change his lock, for security reasons. According to the testimony presented, it appears that the Kurd dissuaded them and after first going to the prison guards' office, he received from their supervisor (third suspect) something that resembled gauze to treat him.
As soon as the prisoner-main suspect in Cidan's murder returned from the prison guards' office, he allegedly went to the 41-year-old victim's cell, talking to him loudly, and then furiously beating him on the body with a lock. At that moment, the 41-year-old Turkish Cypriot appeared to press the notification button again, but the prison guards ignored it. It is also reported that the prison guards counted later that day, but did not inspect the victim's cell.
The process lasted more than five hours. It started shortly after 11:30 and ended at 16:45. The lawyers of the three suspected prison guards, Giannis Ioannou (first suspect), Nikolas Tsardellis (second suspect) and Ioanna Neophytou (third suspect), objected to the request for an 8-day detention and argued for a while. However, Judge Panagiotis Savvides, after a break and a decision, ended up approving the request.
The lawyers of the three arrested argued, submitting, among other things, that the police investigation is incomplete, that there is no question of the suspects influencing investigative work, there was talk of a lack of motivation, and a position was put forward about the reduced involvement of one of the suspects. An issue arose with the detention area of the 1st suspect, who would be transferred to Paphos. Mr. Ioannou raised the question that it is impossible due to the distance to defend the rights of his client. The Judge tried to provide a solution, but the Police were unable to. It turned out that there was a problem not only with the occupancy of the places of detention, but also that the suspected prison guards had to be kept separate from other suspects due to the nature of their profession. For Cidan's murder, 11 persons who were serving a sentence in prison at the time in question are being held as suspects.
