Pafos Live 17 December 2024
Police arrested a 41-year-old resident of Paphos today to facilitate investigations into an ongoing case of container theft committed in Paphos.
The theft was reported to the Police yesterday, December 15, by a resident of Paphos. Police examinations found that the container was stolen on December 10, using a lifting machine.
Further examinations also found that the container was put up for sale online and purchased, by a 44-year-old man, on December 14 against receipt.
On the basis of testimony obtained, a judicial arrest warrant was issued for a 41-year-old man, who was arrested today and detained to facilitate interrogations.
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The Famagusta Assize Court yesterday imposed a seven-year prison sentence on a 62-year-old man who was found guilty in a case of obtaining goods by false representations and money laundering.
The case was reported to the Police in February 2024. According to the details of the case, in September 2023, a resident of the Famagusta district, agreed with the 62-year-old, who presented himself to him as the owner of a construction company, to build five houses, on a piece of land in Famagusta district.
For this purpose, the complainant gave the 62-year-old a sum of €128,500, but the 62-year-old did not proceed with the construction of the houses.
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Filenews
The Court of Appeal intervened in one of the most shocking cases brought to justice. It increased the prison sentence imposed on two persons who had an extramarital affair and admitted to acquiring and possessing child pornography of two underage girls.
The child pornography material concerned the defendant's two daughters, aged 5 and 15 at the time, who, at the instigation of the person with whom she was having an affair, photographed them naked or semi-naked while they slept in their home.
The most horrific in the case are the conversations the two had in relation to the minors, which they exchanged through messages and were located after forensic examination on electronic devices seized by the police and reported to the Court.
The case came to light after Europol informed the Cyprus Police on 17.2.22, the execution of a search warrant at the house of accused 1 on 25.7.22, the seizure of five mobile phones, two USBs, two laptops and the forensic examinations that followed. From these examinations, in the possession of the accused were found:
10 image files showing the 5-year-old lying completely naked on a bed, focusing on specific points
– 7 photo files depicting the 15-year-old naked from the waist up
– 13 image files of the minor under the age of 13 from Greece being either completely naked or wearing her underwear
A forensic examination of defendant 2's mobile phone identified 19 images of her 5-year-old daughter and 21 images of the 15-year-old.
Both faced four charges before the Assize Court each in violation of relevant articles of the Prevention and Combating of Sexual Abuse, Sexual Exploitation of Children and Child Pornography Law 91(I)/2014. They admitted all charges and the court handed them prison sentences, the longest being three years.
It is noted that the law regarding the offence of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 13 provides for a prison sentence of up to life. The sentence was appealed by the Attorney General, who suggested that due account had not been taken of the seriousness of the offences, the observed increase in their committal, the need for dissuasive penalties, and that aggravating factors were not given due weight and that mitigating factors were given undue weight.
The Court of Appeal observed that there was no doubt in the present case that the offences were serious and that severe and dissuasive penalties were required. This was a consequence of the penalties provided for in the Law, the observed increase in the commission of such offenses and the particular to unprecedented and appalling circumstances surrounding their committal.
In fact, the Court of Appeal (Ch. Charalambous, M. Papadopoulou, M. Pikis) stressed that first of all, in the present case, defendant 1 was a person with a serious record and even for similar offences. In 2018 he was sentenced to 18 months in prison not only for possession of child pornography but also for distributing it, while that case had taken into account another similar case committed in 2016.
The Court of Appeal notes: "We agree that the case is not only unprecedented but also shocking by Cypriot standards. In civilized societies it is reasonable to expect that parents or guardians are the ones who primarily care for and protect their children, with selflessness and sacrifice, from all kinds of dangers emanating from would-be third-party criminals. However, we cannot accept that exploiting a mother while her daughters are sleeping to photograph them naked can also work in favour of her or another accomplice as a mitigating circumstance. The reverse we would say, on the one hand because of the exploitation, by their own mother, of the time they are theoretically in the safest place for a child and on the other hand because of the inability of minors (sleeping) to react to anything suspicious they could perceive".
The Court finally found the sentences of three years' imprisonment manifestly inadequate and increased them to four.
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The Permanent Assize Court of Nicosia sentenced today the executioner of 34-year-old Dimitris Andronikos, known as Dimitroui, and two of his accomplices to life imprisonment for premeditated murder. All admitted their involvement in the murder.
It is recalled that the victim lost his life on May 28, 2024 after three shots he received on April 23, 2024 on the Palaichori-Anthoupoli road.
Moreover, on October 25, the Nicosia Assize Court imposed a life sentence on the 42-year-old Syrian driver of the motorcycle used to murder Andronikos. The 42-year-old is the main prosecution witness in the case.
It is noted that the alleged instigator of the murder and another person do not admit their involvement in the crime. In fact, their lawyers asked for their release, without their request being accepted.
The motive of Andronikos' murder seems to be the interests of the night.
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The Limassol Police Department has been fully mobilized after a large quantity of weapons, drugs, bullets and improvised explosive devices were found in the area of Polemidia, near the Licensing Authority.
According to the first information, during work in an open area, a bag was found, inside which a pistol was found. Members of the Police rushed to the scene and cordoned off the scene. Searches in the area found a number of pistols and various other items related to weapons, such as bullets, explosive devices and a large quantity of drugs in bags, in an open area in Polemidia.
Investigations are in full swing to establish the origin of the weapons, how they were found in the area and whether they are linked to criminal activity.
