Filenews 14 July 2023
Police made a new arrest today in connection with the bombings case under investigation. Specifically, following testimony, an arrest warrant was issued against a 31-year-old man from Limassol, who was arrested and detained.
It is recalled that another person is in custody for the same case, namely a 32-year-old man, who admitted to being the person who manufactured, placed and detonated the explosive devices on demand, of course at no cost.
It is worth noting that the 32-year-old after his arrest confessed to committing seven bombings that occurred in the last two and a half months in Limassol, while admitting that the explosive device found in his vehicle was intended for a new target.
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Video footage of the movements of accused terrorist Orhan Asadov is included in the witness material of the high-profile case, which has occupied the prosecuting authorities since September 2021.
The movements of the 39-year-old, who is accused of conspiring with others to commit five murders of Israeli citizens in Cyprus, were recorded through CCTV installed in the area where the accused was moving before being arrested by police.
The investigators of the ICF Headquarters, who had investigated this case, collected the relevant videos, which are part of the witness material of the trial.
The videos in question, as well as other witness material collected by the police, were to bring a twist to the hearing. Panos Paphitis, a lawyer for the second defendant, Muzafar Abbas, objected to the material in question. He raised the issue of processing data obtained by the Police without a court order, citing a violation of constitutional rights.
The three-judge Assize Court decided to examine the matter and will issue an interim decision on the raised issue on the 26th of this month. It should be noted that the hearing of the case began on July 6. This was followed by hearings on 7/7 and last Wednesday. The trial shall take place in camera.
The case was originally registered on November 5, 2021.
It should be noted that at the end of last September, when one year had passed since the arrest of Azerbaijan, the latter, through his lawyer Efstathios K. Efstathiou, had admitted a large number of charges related to offences of forgery and possession of weapons. The Azerbaijani denies charges related to terrorism, conspiracy to commit murder and money laundering. This was preceded by the satisfaction of a request by efstathios for access to the ballistic examinations (20/5/2022) of the pistol in his client's possession when he was arrested.
The indictment initially included six people, and now there are three defendants. The two were acquitted at an early stage. They were judged not to have been actively involved. A third person, a 21-year-old Cypriot university student originally from Lebanon, was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for three years and had become a witness for the prosecution. As for the three remaining, one is Asadov, the second is 28-year-old Muzafar Abbas, allegedly a close associate of the first (he is accused of hiding a pistol in the courtyard of a house in Paphos found by the ICF Headquarters), while the third defendant, also a 28-year-old, is now facing two offences involving providing support to Abbas.
The prosecution is represented by the Public Prosecutor of the Republic, Polina Efthyvoulou.
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Filenews 15 July 2023
At around 3.20 yesterday afternoon, a boat about five meters long, carrying 22 irregular migrants (23 men, two children, and three women), was spotted at a distance of 18 nautical miles southeast of Cape Greco.
A boat of the Port and Maritime Police rushed to the spot, where at a distance of about 13 nautical miles, it was found that the boat was entering water due to the fact that it was overloaded and the passengers were not carrying life jackets. They all boarded the Police Boat for their safety while the boat they were on sank while being towed.
After they were safely transferred to the Paralimni Fishing Shelter and in the context of the oral interrogation that the above persons received, a testimony emerged against a 17.5-year-old person who brought him to be the boat's navigator and he was arrested. The rest of the persons were transferred to the Temporary Accommodation Centre in Pournara.
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Two pedestrians who were swept away by a vehicle as they crossed the road on Ikarou Street in Paphos are in serious condition at Paphos General Hospital.
According to police, the traffic accident occurred shortly before midnight on Friday, when the two tourists, a man and a woman aged 65 and 63 respectively, while trying to cross a road, were swept away by a vehicle driven by a 50-year-old man.
The two tourists were taken to hospital, where they were found to have multiple fractures.
A 65-year-old man was detained for treatment in the Intensive Care Unit while the woman underwent surgery due to internal bleeding. Both are hospitalized in serious condition.
The driver of the vehicle was given a breathalyzer test with zero indication, while the Paphos Traffic Police continues the examinations.
