Filenews 27 November 2025
Officials of the Customs Department at Paphos Airport located on November 21, 2025, a passenger with British citizenship, shortly before his departure for the United Kingdom, carrying in his luggage large quantities of tobacco products without the prescribed marking for the harmful of smoking in Greek and Turkish, as well as without a security feature and traceability code - evidence that suggested they were duty-free.
Specifically, 135 boxes of 200 cigarettes, 4 packs of 20 cigarettes and 500 grams of tobacco for a rolled cigarette were confiscated in his luggage.
The passenger was arrested for flagrante delicto offenses and taken to detention, in order to appear before the Paphos District Court today with a request for four-day detention.
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The Police in Limassol were alerted after a fire broke out in four parked vehicles in Mouttagiaka, late on Wednesday night. The luxury cars, worth hundreds of thousands of euros, were completely destroyed, with the first investigations of the Limassol Police Department talking about a targeted criminal act. Specifically, around 11:46 in the evening, information was received about a fire in four vehicles parked in a private, open parking lot in Mouttagiaka. The vehicles belong to a 40-year-old (two), a 38-year-old and a 21-year-old. The fire was extinguished by the Fire Service.
Information from Filenews states that these are luxury vehicles, worth hundreds of thousands of euros. The vehicles are linked to a well-known businessman in the city, who was a close associate of Stavros Demosthenous, who was murdered last month.
The investigators of the Limassol Police Department have in their possession testimony and material from a closed circuit surveillance, in which the perpetrator can be seen going to the scene on foot and dousing the vehicles with flammable material. The investigators of the TAE Limassol are expected to take a statement from the owner. An alarm has been sounded again in the city, with the investigations in full swing. The possibility that the perpetrators tried to send a message to the owner of the vehicles and a foreign businessman is also being examined.
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The reasons why Cyprus requested the extradition of the former Minister of Energy of Ukraine, Volodymyr Demchyshyn, were considered political and that is why the process did not proceed. This was reported by the Ministry of Justice to "F", which raised a series of questions, highlighting reports in the Ukrainian press, which have the former minister being wanted internationally since 2022 for a case of illegal supply of coal from eastern Ukraine.
The 51-year-old former state official, who now lives in Cyprus, had reported last Thursday an attempted kidnapping outside his home in the tourist area of Oroklini. The issue took on international dimensions, with Ukrainian media reporting that the 51-year-old, who served in Arsenii Yatsenyuk's second government as Ukraine's Minister of Energy and Coal Industry (2014-2016), is internationally wanted. According to the Ukrainian press, Demchyshin "is on an international wanted list, in connection with a case involving the supply of coal from the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine in 2014-2015 and the assistance to pro-Russian terrorist organizations in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions."
The Cypriot Police confirmed the international arrest warrant and referred to an opinion of the Legal Service, which stopped the process of its extradition, since it falls, as it stated, under an exception provided for in an article of the law ratifying the European Convention on the extradition of fugitives. For its part, the Legal Service pointed to the Ministry of Justice, indicating that it requested the relevant opinion. As reported to us by the Ministry of Justice, the relevant opinion was requested at the beginning of 2023. "The reason why the exemption was decided is because it was considered by the Legal Service that Ukraine's motives were political, so that is why the process did not proceed," the Ministry of Justice noted.
Regarding the investigations into the attempted kidnapping of the 51-year-old, the TAE Larnaca continues to search for two persons, who are missing and it is being examined whether they crossed into the occupied territories. The two wanted are Athos Kotsonis, 42 years old from Larnaca and Dmitry Abramov, 44 years old, from Russia. The motives for the kidnapping attempt, according to information from the Police, seem to be related to financial differences.
It is recalled that the 51-year-old called the Police and reported that on Thursday afternoon three unknown persons tried to force him into a commercial vehicle. According to what he reported to the police, while he was at his house with his 36-year-old partner and her 72-year-old father, they noticed that a van was parked nearby. The vehicle aroused suspicion in the 51-year-old, who approached it together with the 72-year-old. As they approached the vehicle, according to his complaint, they were allegedly attacked by three strangers, who had their faces covered with surgical masks.
The two reacted, as a result of which the perpetrators fled on foot, leaving the commercial vehicle behind. Under the microscope are the van vehicle left behind by the three perpetrators, a pistol with an empty magazine, a wig, as well as other evidence.
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A chase took place in the early hours of Thursday 27/11, around 3:00, in the area of Paramytha, when a group of poachers ignored a signal to stop from members of the Game Service.
According to information, the poachers allegedly fired, and then crashed their vehicle into the official vehicle. A chase ensued, during which they managed to escape.
The members of Thira identified the suspects and the Police issued arrest warrants. The perpetrators are wanted.
The vehicle they were using did not have registration plates, while the area where they were located was isolated.
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Cyprus Mail
The two Greek Cypriots standing trial in the north for alleged privacy violations will be appearing in court on Thursday for a second consecutive day of hearings.
On Wednesday, the prosecution called in four witnesses – two IT technicians, a policeman and an associate of lawyer Murat Metin Hakki.
Hakki, the lawyer of the five Greek Cypriots who were arrested in the north in July, was himself arrested in early September and released the next day.
Five Greek Cypriots were initially arrested on July 19 near Trikomo, with three having been released after being found not guilty of the crimes of which they stood accused at a military court in northern Nicosia.
The other two Greek Cypriots – a couple – remain in the north, where they are standing trial for alleged privacy violations.
At the military court, one of the five had been charged with illegally entering the north when the five crossed into the north via the Strovilia crossing point, near Famagusta, on July 19, while the other four stood accused of aiding and abetting the illegal entry.
The two still in the north remain on bail. They had initially been held in custody, but two separate rulings made by the north’s supreme court eventually saw them released on bail in September.
