Pafos Live 30 September 2025
Regarding a 31-year-old man falling from the balcony of an apartment building in Limassol. A case of premeditated murder is being investigated
The legal autopsy was carried out yesterday morning on the body of a 31-year-old man who succumbed to his injuries after falling from the balcony of an apartment building on 28/9/2025 in Limassol.
According to medical examiners Angeliki Papetta and Orthodoxos Orthodoxou, his death was caused by hemorrhagic shock as a result of internal bleeding from a ruptured spleen while awaiting laboratory tests. According to the medical examiners, penetrating wounds were found on the body in the abdomen and in the absence of findings that justify the infliction of the injuries as a result of a fall, they reasonably raise the suspicion of their being caused by a mechanism that presupposes a penetrating type of injury, e.g. by an object in the area of the mentioned fall and/or by a sharp object before the fall.
Following the above development, a 26-year-old woman was taken to the Limassol Police Department, who was arrested on the basis of a court warrant to facilitate investigations into an investigated case of premeditated murder.
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Around 7 yesterday afternoon, information was received that shots were fired outside a hotel in Limassol and that a person was taken injured to the Limassol General Hospital.
Members of the Police rushed to the scene where, from preliminary examinations, there seems to have been an incident involving about ten people, during which a shot was fired, resulting in the injury to the abdomen of a 42-year-old man. A firearm casing and various other items were found at the scene of the incident which were received for further examination.
The injured man was taken to the Limassol General Hospital where he was admitted to the operating room. According to the doctors on duty, his condition is considered serious but out of danger.
According to the examinations, the perpetrators fled the scene in a car, which was later found abandoned in an open area on the coastal road of Zygi.
The photos of two persons, who are being sought to facilitate investigations into the above case, have been released.
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Pafos Press
A robbery yesterday in Nicosia. According to the Police, the incident occurred at around 18:40 in Nicosia. The victim was a woman who lived in an apartment. Police officers went to the scene where they found the 44-year-old resident of the apartment, according to whom, a short time earlier, there was a knock on the apartment door and after she opened it, an unknown man wearing sunglasses and a hat entered. According to the 44-year-old's claim, the man was holding a knife and after beating and threatening her, he took a box containing a number of pieces of jewellery as well as a large amount of money in various banknotes and fled in a car that was waiting for him and in which two other people were riding. The Nicosia TAE continues the examinations.
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Filenews
The case of 61-year-old Th.K. from Greece, who is under arrest for the case with the 102 kilograms of drugs, looks like a joke. At the end of the last decade, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for trafficking 64 kilograms of cannabis from Thessaloniki to the port of Limassol.
Last Saturday - four years after the imposition of the heavy sentence - he was again found trafficking in an identical way a huge amount of drugs from the Greek city to Limassol. This time he is presented as the key person behind the transport of 97 kilograms of cannabis and 5 kilograms of cocaine.
The issue raised has to do with the fact that the person in question managed to be released in a very short period of time after his conviction. T.K. was arrested in 2018 by the Anti-Drug Service (YKAN) for importing 64 kilograms of cannabis into Cyprus while he was 54 years old. A year later he was sentenced to many years in prison, four years later he was released and after two years he had a role in the import of a large quantity of drugs into Cyprus again.
The facts
The history of the case is indicative of the tragedy we are experiencing. Starting from the case of the last decade, it should be noted that the drugs (64 kg of cannabis) were found in coin-operated "crane" type toys that were in a warehouse in the industrial area of Linopetra, after a raid by YKAN on October 30, 2018.
The Limassol Permanent Criminal Court sentenced him to 14 years in prison in July 2019, which began to be calculated from the fall of 2018 when he was arrested.
Transfer and redemption
Two sources of information of "F" told us that in October 2021, the now 61-year-old Th.K. was transferred from the Central Prison of Nicosia, to a penitentiary in Greece. According to what they reported in our newspaper, "in October 2023, he bought his sentence in Greece and was released from the penitentiary where he was being held".
Somehow, it seems that the way was opened for him to deal with drug trafficking again. We remind you that last Saturday he was arrested after a coordinated operation by YKAN for importing 97 kilograms of cannabis and five kilograms of cocaine. The arrest came after the drugs were transported from Limassol (where they were re-imported by ferry via Thessaloniki) to Paphos. The drugs were in a container and were hidden inside three inflatable toys. The 61-year-old, after his arrest, verbally admitted to drug possession.
In Cyprus
However, if the 61-year-old remained in the Central Prison, according to the law, he would have the right to request his release with conditions (and restrictions) as long as he was serving half of his sentence. That is, the time from 2018 would count. This means that he would be eligible to submit a request to the Parole Board in the fall of 2025. However, as can be seen from the information we received, the 61-year-old, after his transfer to Greece, was released two years ago.
Souliotis: "It is common for them to be released from prison at 1/3 of the sentence"
• Condition for the approval of a request for transfer by the Greek authorities
"F", trying to get answers about the 61-year-old and his early release from prison in Greece, contacted people from Greece to get answers competently. We are waiting for answers.
Besides, the journalist, Giannis Souliotis, who has been dealing with police reporting in Greece for years ("Kathimerini") told us with all reservations regarding the present case that lately "it is common for persons who have been convicted of serious offenses to be released after serving 1/3 of the sentence".
Another person who is in a position to know things and situations about Greece's investigative system and the handling of criminal cases, commented to "F" that people who give information about cases with quantities of drugs greater than those that concern them, then serve shorter sentences.
"F" also contacted the former Minister of Justice Stefi Drakou. According to our information, the transfer of the 61-year-old took place in October 2021, a period when she was handling the Ministry's portfolio (2/7/2021 – 28/2/2023). Ms. Drakou did not remember this particular case. She indicated, however, that from the moment that the request of a Greek prisoner of the Central Prisons for his transfer to his homeland is approved by the Greek authorities, then the competent minister of Cyprus has no room to refuse.
Our newspaper also tried to contact Mrs. Emily Gioliti, who served as Minister of Justice in the previous period (29/6/2020 – 17/6/2021). Our call was not answered.
It is noted that during the tenure of Ms. Giolitis, the issue of transferring Greek prisoners from the Central Prisons to prisons in Greece was raised. It is a characteristic article in "F", dated 5/9/2020, under the title "20 Greek prison convicts in despair". The report noted the following: "At the moment, 20 applications are pending from Greek nationals who are serving sentences in prisons to be transferred to their country. Of these, nine have been rejected and interested parties have re-submitted a request for review, 11 are being studied and only two have been accepted. According to our same information from Greek convicts, there is a Greek couple who are being held in prisons in Cyprus after being convicted in a drug case, they have submitted a request to be transferred to Greece, but it was rejected."
In the same article it was explained that "they have sent applications en masse (note. to the Greek authorities) to be transferred to Greek prisons to no avail and without giving them any excuse why they are being rejected."
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Around 10 last night, information was received about a fire on a motorcycle which was under a bridge in Peristerona.
Members of the Police went to the scene where they found the motorcycle on fire. With the use of fire extinguishers, they extinguished the fire before the arrival of the Fire Service. The motorcycle was completely destroyed.
According to the examinations carried out, the motorcycle was declared by its owner on 18/6/2025 as stolen.
Further investigations into the exact causes of the fire will be carried out this morning.
The TAE of Morphou in collaboration with the Police Station of Peristerona continue the examinations.
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The decision of the Administrative Court of International Protection to release an Iranian national, an applicant for international protection, who was detained after being deemed a danger to public order and security, was overturned by the Administrative Court of Appeal with a unanimous decision dated September 25, 2025, accepting the grounds of appeal registered by the Attorney General of the Republic.
The Iranian arrived in the Republic in 2000 on temporary leave as a visitor and in 2005, using false information, he submitted an asylum application, which was rejected by the authorities of the Republic. Subsequently, he was arrested under the false name he stated and after admitting in a criminal case for illegal entry into the Republic from the occupied airport of Tymbou, he was sentenced to prison. Detention and deportation orders were issued against him, with his name included in the stop-list database. In 2013, the Iranian was arrested on charges of illegally staying in the Republic and possession and use of a class A controlled drug and after being sentenced by a criminal court to a prison sentence, he was transferred to the Central Prison from where he was deported. In 2014, the Iranian illegally re-entered the Republic through occupied territories. He was intercepted by members of the Crime Prevention Unit whom he attacked, while a quantity of a class A controlled drug was found in his possession. The Iranian was sentenced to prison for committing the offenses and in 2015 he was deported, only to illegally re-enter the Republic at a later time. The Iranian was arrested and a criminal case was registered against him for the offenses of illegal entry, illegal use of controlled drugs and possession of an offensive weapon, for which he was sentenced to prison and taken to the Central Prison. Before the expiry of his sentence, detention and deportation orders were also issued against him under the Aliens and Immigration Law, which were not challenged by the respondent. In 2024, after the expiration of his sentence, the foreigner, having previously submitted a new asylum application which was rejected, requested the reopening of his file which, after being deemed admissible, led to a substantive examination of his application. His application was rejected again and he proceeded to register an appeal with the Administrative Court of International Protection against the order of his detention.
The Administrative Court of International Protection ordered that the foreigner be released, ruling that the justification for issuing the detention order against the specific person is based solely on the existence of a conviction for a series of offenses, for which he has already served his sentence and that the Authorities of the Republic did not apply the principle of necessity and proportionality before reaching the choice of the restrictive measure of detention imposed on him.
The Administrative Court of Appeal, following an appeal by the Attorney General of the Republic against the first-instance decision, taking into account the nature and seriousness of the offenses for which the administrative detention of the person in question was decided in 2025 and his general conduct in the Republic in 2000 until 2025, the time at which the order of his detention was issued under the Refugee Law N.6(I)/2000, decided that these constituted data that determined individual behavior and made the decision of the Administration to consider the specific person dangerous to public order reasonable.
Consequently, disagreeing with the judgment of the Administrative Court of International Protection, the Court of Appeal ruled that the practice of continuing the previous detention without interruption on the basis of different legislative regulations (from the detention regime under the Aliens and Immigration Law, Chapter 105, to the new regime under the Refugee Law N.6(I)/2000), does not undermine the obligation of the Administration to carry out a strictly individualized control of the conditions of detention. The position of the Court of Appeal also, citing previous case law of the Supreme Court, was that what applies to European citizens also applies to third-country nationals, citing a previous decision where an EU citizen, after his conviction, was deemed to pose a danger to public order and security, and was deported.
Setting aside the decision of the Administrative Court of International Protection, the Court of Appeal upheld the administrative decision of detention and awarded costs in favor of the Republic.
On behalf of the Attorney General of the Republic, the case was handled by Ms. Rafaela Charalambous, Lawyer of the Republic.
