Pafos Live 25 May 2026
A disturbance was caused in the morning in Kissonerga. During the night, unknown persons stole the bust of the hero Christos Kkelis from the area of the community's monument outside the community's primary school.
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Filenews
The presence and action of the Police last night was intense, throughout Cyprus, with organized patrols in key points of urban areas, with the aim of preventing serious criminal acts, ensuring public order and increasing the sense of security of the public.
The result of the preventive police operations was the arrest of two persons for various offenses, such as assault on a police officer, etc.
As part of these operations, during the night, 347 drivers and 103 passengers were stopped and checked. At the same time, 30 inspections of premises were carried out, with the aim of dealing with phenomena of delinquency, where three complaints emerged.
During traffic checks carried out, 215 complaints were made, concerning various traffic violations, while five investigated cases of traffic violations also emerged.
Of the complaints made, 102 complaints from drivers for exceeding the speed limit stand out, while as part of the police examinations, six vehicles were detained. 60 alcohol tests were carried out, which resulted in four complaints, while two drivers tested positive in preliminary drug tests.
Policing operations, for the prevention and suppression of crime, continue daily, with an increased/enhanced police presence, targeted controls and immediate operational action, with the aim of increasing the sense of security of citizens/protecting citizens and ensuring public order.
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The Police arrested a 35-year-old man, by virtue of a court warrant, to facilitate investigations into an investigated case of fighting and shooting, committed in Larnaca on January 17, 2026.
The 35-year-old was arrested in the early hours of last Friday, while on the same day he was brought before the Larnaca District Court, which issued a five-day detention order against him.
TAE Larnaca continues the exams.
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From 9 to 12 years, the Court of Appeal increased the sentence of a young person convicted in 2023 of possession of 13 kilograms of drugs for the purpose of supply.
The Court of Appeal accepted the appeal of the Attorney General for inadequacy of the sentence and ruled that the large amount of drugs, i.e. 12 kg and 900 g, justified its increase by three years. The convicted had admitted to the Limassol Criminal Court that on 20.9.2023 he was in possession of 13 kilograms of cannabis plant, from which the resin had not been extracted, with the intention of supplying it to other persons.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the Court of First Instance that rejected the reason why the accused resorted to committing the serious offenses in question and in particular his financial inability, stressing that "in no way can he justify the serious illegal behaviour he indicated. The respondent should have sought legal sources of income and not succumbed to temptation and resorted to obtaining quick financial benefit with this illegal action", point out the three judges of the Court of Appeal, increasing the sentence.
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The Court of Appeal proceeded with a significant correction of a first-instance decision concerning old banking facilities with its decision dated May 19, 2026, increasing by hundreds of thousands of euros the amount owed to a loan management company, after finding that the court of first instance incorrectly calculated the debts in euros instead of in Cyprus pounds, the currency in force in 2005.
The case concerns two banking facilities that were granted in 2000 and ended in 2005. The court of first instance had issued a decision in favour of the Bank and against the debtors, awarding two amounts in euros with an interest rate of 8% from 2005 until repayment. Following the first-instance decision, the Bank transferred its claims to a loan management company, which became the new beneficiary of the amounts and was the one that filed the appeal.
The Court of Appeal explains that the transfer was made pursuant to Article 18 of Law 169(I)/2015, noting that the Bank "transferred to the appellants the disputed agreements as well as the rights and obligations arising from them". Thus, the appellants, as new holders of the claims, requested the correction of the amounts, arguing that the court of first instance incorrectly calculated the debtors' debts in euros instead of in Cyprus pounds.
The Court of Appeal agreed. As it states in its decision, "all data refer to Cyprus pounds, and the currency in force in November 2005 in Cyprus was the Cyprus pound and not the euro". Nevertheless, the court of first instance issued the judgment in euros without converting the amounts. The Court of Appeal attributes this to an "inadvertent" error and clarifies that "the decision should have been issued in the amount of euros, but corresponding to the Cyprus pounds that were due".
Based on this, the Court of Appeal adjusted the amounts, determining that the amount due for the loan amounts to €562,602.68 instead of €329,277, while for the current account the amount due was set at €63,710.27 instead of €37,288. The difference results from the correct conversion of the amounts from Cyprus pounds to euros.
The Court also examined three additional grounds of appeal relating to the way in which interest rates were calculated. The appellants argued that the court of first instance incorrectly applied the Interest Act of 1977 instead of the Interest Rate Liberalisation and Related Matters Act of 1999 and that it misinterpreted the terms of interest rate fluctuations. The Court of Appeal, however, did not find any error in the first-instance judgment.
In the end, the Court of Appeal accepted only the first ground of appeal, the one concerning the currency and the calculation of the amounts, while rejecting the remaining three. As he noted, "the appeal succeeds partially. The first-instance judgment as to the amount of the amounts issued by the decision is set aside and a decision is issued for the amounts of (a) €562,602.68 (i.e. ΛΚ329,277.00) and (b) €63,710.27 (i.e. ΛΚ37,288.00). As to the rest, the first instance decision is upheld."
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The four accused of participating in a criminal organization will appear again before the Permanent Criminal Court of Larnaca on September 16.
It is recalled that at a previous hearing, three of the four defendants were released on parole. The Permanent Criminal Court of Larnaca relied on the removal of offenses from the indictment.
They are a 42-year-old man and two 29-year-olds, whose defense attorneys had objected to their detention.
Only the 22-year-old SYOP, who is also accused of the attempted murder of a well-known businessman, remains as a defendant, while in a previous trial a 32-year-old man was acquitted, due to insufficient testimony.
The Permanent Criminal Court ruled that due to the substantial change in the indictment, the re-examination of the request for the detention of the three defendants is justified.
The Permanent Assize Court also took into account their personal circumstances, as well as their ties with the Republic of Cyprus which reduces their risk of absconding to other countries.
The three were released and ordered that each of them sign a bail of €30,000 with creditworthy guarantors, hand over their travel documents and report 3 times a week to a police station.
In addition, their names were placed on the stop list.
Several charges have been removed from the indictment of the case.
The 42-year-old now faces charges of money laundering as well as participation in a criminal organization, while the two 29-year-olds face an additional charge for money laundering.
At a previous hearing, the defendants replied that they did not plead guilty. The hearing of the case was set for September 16, 2026.
It is recalled that the four defendants were arrested on January 22 by the police as part of a large operation carried out in Larnaca and the Central Prisons.
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in-cyprus
Greek police arrested 20 people on the island of Crete on Monday, saying they had dismantled a criminal gang suspected of defrauding the European Union of agricultural subsidies – the latest case in a growing scandal that has shaken the government.
Among the group’s suspected leaders were two accountants and state employees who assisted farmers with submitting applications to receive EU farm funds based on false declarations of farm land, police officials said.
Since starting to operate in 2019, the network’s illegal revenue topped €3 million ($3.49 million), police said in a statement.
Monday’s arrests are the latest in a series of local cases linked to a wider probe by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office – an independent EU office – into alleged crimes in Greece against the bloc’s financial interests.
Last year, European prosecutors charged dozens of Greek stock-breeders with faking ownership of grazing land to claim millions of euros in EU subsidies, with the alleged help of state employees and conservative politicians.
The scandal has made political waves in Greece, prompting parliamentary probes – which were inconclusive – as well as ministers’ resignations and calls for early elections by opposition parties.
At the request of the European chief prosecutor, parliament voted in April to lift the parliamentary immunity of 13 lawmakers from the ruling New Democracy party, so they can be investigated over their suspected role in separate cases.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged EU prosecutors to decide swiftly whether to indict the lawmakers, as he seeks to stem the political fallout from the probe before the next parliamentary election due by spring 2027.
(Reuters)
