Pafos Live 9 May 2026
Around 12:30 p.m. yesterday, members of the Famagusta ADE during a patrol in Ayia Napa, identified a foreign man who was recorded in the previous days by a closed circuit surveillance, attempting to break into houses.
After approaching the man in question, it was found that he was a 28-year-old man whose residence permit in the Republic had expired and he was arrested for a flagrante delicto.
The 28-year-old was then taken to the offices of the Famagusta Police Department where, under interrogation, he admitted to committing a total of ten cases of burglary and theft in Ayia Napa.
The authorities were alerted in the early hours of the morning.
According to the Police, around 4 a.m. Information was received about a fire in a car in the village of Mammari.
The vehicle in question, owned by a 49-year-old man, which is used by a 48-year-old woman, was completely destroyed, while the fire spread to a second vehicle owned by a 23-year-old woman.
The second vehicle was extensively damaged. Also, the fire caused damage to the doors and windows of the 49-year-old's house.
The fire was extinguished by members of the P.Y. The examinations continue by the TAE Nicosia. At first glance, this is a malicious act.
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.
As a result of the preventive policing operations, 12 persons were arrested, for various offenses including theft, causing concern and drugs.
During the night, 493 vehicles were stopped for inspection and 715 drivers and passengers were checked. At the same time, 44 inspections of premises were carried out, from which seven complaints emerged.
During traffic checks carried out, 186 complaints were made about various traffic violations, of which 50 concern speeding. A total of 162 alcohol tests were performed, with eight positive results, as well as nine preliminary drug tests, with three positive results. Also, as part of the police examinations, ten vehicles were detained.
Coordinated policing operations, for the prevention and suppression of crime, continue daily, with an enhanced police presence, targeted controls and immediate operational action, in order to protect citizens and ensure public order.
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The Police arrested a 45-year-old man from Jordan today, in connection with an investigated case of extortion of money by false representations, theft, impersonation, and money laundering.
According to a complaint filed by five persons, on May 06, at the Famagusta Police Department, advertisements were posted on an online page for the rental of apartments in Ayia Napa and Protaras, which, as it turned out, do not belong to the person who published the ads.
The people who rented the apartments, when they went there, found that others were staying. The perpetrator of the fraud extorted several thousand euros from the five complainants, allegedly for renting an apartment.
From the police examinations carried out, evidence emerged against the 45-year-old, on the basis of which a court warrant for his arrest was issued. He was arrested shortly before 10.30 a.m. today, by members of the Police, at Larnaca airport, by virtue of the court warrant and was taken into custody for the purpose of investigating the case.
It is noted that the arrested person had previously engaged the Larnaca TAE for similar cases.
The case is being investigated by the Famagusta Police Department.
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An Israeli was arrested in Cyprus with the intention of being extradited to his country to be tried for murder, the Supreme Court ordered his release and then the Court of Appeal ordered his re-arrest.
The Israeli citizen was arrested on the basis of an interim arrest warrant issued against him on 12.8.2025, by the president of the Nicosia District Court pending authorization from the Minister of Justice and Public Order to initiate the extradition process to Israel.
The arrested person filed an application with the Supreme Court and obtained a certiorari warrant by which he cancelled the temporary arrest warrant against him and for this he was released.
As the Supreme Court decided, the contested temporary arrest warrant was issued against the respondent without any evidence of evidence, only the description of a heinous crime. As the Court pointed out, the Israeli red notice and the Police oath stated that the perpetrator was the applicant, but it is not stated where this conclusion was based. There is no mention of any testimony that he was scientifically or otherwise connected or that anyone recognized him. Nor could it be assumed, if possible, that it is logical that those present at the scene of the crime recognized him, since the perpetrator was disguised and had his face covered. If some others took into account the testimony and came up with the summary of the facts as shown in the red notice and, by extension, in the oath, this is not enough.
The Attorney General appealed against this decision, stating that it was erroneously and illegally held by the Court of First Instance that the above issued temporary arrest warrant was issued in excess of power.
According to the Supreme Court, sitting in its second instance procedure (three judges), for the issuance of a temporary arrest warrant of the kind, the presentation of "evidence" is not required, nor is the provisions of article 18 of the Criminal Procedure Law, Cap. 155.
"In this case, he states, the testimony that was put before the President who issued the temporary warrant was the Red Advertisement which, as the Court of First Instance observed, was an annex to the police oath where its essential content had been translated into Greek. In it, reference is made to the offences for which extradition was requested, the time and place where they were committed, a brief mention of the facts and identity of the requested person. These elements satisfy the provisions of articles 16 and 12 of Law 95/1970, Ratifying Law of the European Convention on Fugitives, which, as noted, prevails over any other law."
Following this finding, it annulled the decision of the Supreme Court to release the Israeli.
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Around 03:30 this morning, a 37-year-old man presented himself at Larnaca airport to travel abroad.
During the passport control, it was found that a European Arrest Warrant was pending against him for the offenses of participation in a criminal organization, cybercrime and embezzlement of a large amount of money, which were committed in the year 2022, in a European country.
The 37-year-old, after being arrested, was taken into custody while he is expected to appear before the Larnaca District Court in the next few days, to begin the extradition process.
TAE Larnaca continues the exams.
He came to Cyprus to escape from the most dangerous country in the world, as he described South Africa, and was destined to experience the ultimate nightmare on our island.
The 53-year-old South African, Joseph Davidson, bodybuilding coach and businessman, was held as a prisoner in the Central Prison for 1,5 years facing charges of a rape that, as the Permanent Criminal Court of Larnaca decided last Monday, he never committed.
Davidson's vindication came 18 months later, but as he states, there was a great emotional and moral cost for him and his two daughters in a case that could well be a series on Netflix.
The felony for which he was accused, according to his positions that he repeatedly expressed to "F", referring to reports of the Court, was a plot between his previously 40-year-old wife from Lithuania, her sister and their mother, to extract - among other things - from his possession 189 gold coins that he had in a bank safe (159) and in their privately owned house in Kalavasos (30) and in general property that reaches €2 million. He was accused of raping his wife's sister, an allegation that was debunked during the hearing of the case.
The 53-year-old from the first moment he was arrested by the Cyprus Police had given his positions on the motives of the complaint against him, however, the investigators failed to examine his version. Something that the three-member judiciary points out in its - catapult against the three aforementioned women - verdict.
The case does not end with the acquittal on May 4, which is equivalent to his release. Now, as he told us privately the day before yesterday in Kiti, Larnaca where we met, he is complaining having in his hands a levelling court decision against his accusers, while he claims his property which, on the basis of what he claims, was appropriated by his wife, through a court process he initiated.
The case
The facts surrounding the case are vividly recorded in the decision of the Permanent Criminal Court of Larnaca. Davidson married the now 40-year-old A.K. in 2016 in South Africa where they resided permanently and met. At the beginning of the current 10 years, they decided to move to Cyprus together with the members of A.K.'s family, while until 2022 they settled in a three-storey house in Kalavasos, which has four separate apartments. In one lived Davidson with A.K., in the other one of his two daughters from his first marriage and her grandmother A.K., in the third his wife's sister and in the remaining his father-in-law and mother-in-law.
Davidson and his wife ran a business in Limassol with health food products.
The case starts with a leisure trip to Texas, USA, with his wife and sister. During their stay in the US, the two women, and while Davidson was away from the place where they lived, took the plane without his knowledge and travelled back to Cyprus. On 10/11/2024, they gave a statement to the Cyprus Police and reported him, among other things, for rape that took place and two allegedly episodic incidents in which they claimed that he used violence against them and their mother.
When Davidson returned to Cyprus himself, he was arrested on the basis of the complaint and has been detained ever since. From the first moment, the 53-year-old had told the investigators that the reason they reported him was for his wife to appropriate the gold coins he had in a bank deposit box (159) and in the house in Kalavasos (30).
In fact, there was also communication between Davidson himself and his daughter when he was in the US and realized that his wife and sister had abandoned him. Davidson, according to firm testimony he presented in court, had told his daughter to check the situation because she feared they intended to extort the coins from him.
"Based on a plan"
There are other facts that are findings of the Court in its assessment of the testimony before it and which are recorded in the court decision. While A.K. had said that she decided to divorce Davidson during their stay in the US (October 2024), it turned out that she had filed for divorce previously, in September 2024. Exactly one year earlier, in September 2023, A.K., without the accused's knowledge, revoked the power of attorney that gave him access to the bank vault. Davidson's wife had also gone to the safe deposit box before the trip, but also a day after Davidson returned to Cyprus where he was arrested. Also, A.K.'s father, while they were away in the USA, changed the lock of the main entrance of the house in Kalavasos. The Court notes, among other things, that "the revocation of the power of attorney, the filing of the divorce petition and the visit to the bank deposit box before the trip, the change of the lock of the main entrance while they were on the trip and the blocking of the Defendant's card before he left it in Texas (...) when viewed collectively, they demonstrate that MK4 (A.K.) acted according to a plan."
Davidson's case politely interrupted the interview to express support
for him.
"I was not in Cyprus when they claimed that I raped her"
- What 53-year-old Joseph Davidson told us privately in Kiti
Joseph Davidson and I met on Thursday afternoon in Kiti. Our discussion focused on issues on which the Court's decision had inevitably not shed light. After all, in the trial the focus was on the allegations on the basis of which Davidson was charged.
The 53-year-old claimed that because of his wife's status as a European citizen, he gave her full access to the management of the family's financial affairs. "She was like my accountant. She kept the books. She had access to the company's bank accounts online and managed all the amounts. She also admitted it to the Court," he argued.
He referred to (1) the bank deposit box with the 159 gold coins (he claims that another 30 were in the house in Kalavasos, where he no longer has access), (2) a bank account in Lithuania with deposits of €738,000, (3) a trust (the house in Kalavasos was registered) that was created and he and his daughters were fraudulently excluded... For these reasons, he put forward various positions that we consciously do not convey, as they will be the subject of a court proceeding after a lawsuit he filed.
What we asked is how was it possible for him to lose all access and not control the financial matters himself. He emphasized that she was his wife and had never given him negative indications. He added that when they went to the US he repeatedly asked her about their assets and that she promised to show him all the financial statements. At another point he claimed: "She had already filed for divorce and I didn't know about it. In September 2024. To be precise, on 25/9/24. In the divorce petition she had made no mention of rape, no mention of anything. Someone advised her that if she got a divorce she wouldn't take money from me. So she withdrew the application. Then we went on vacation to the USA, to Texas. On October 26. Her sister was also with us. I didn't know she wanted to break up with me. We were on vacation and left without me knowing about Cyprus. And then they reported me for 15 offenses. Assault, rape... Unbelievable! Due to the seriousness of the offenses, he filed for divorce while I was detained as a prisoner in Cyprus. I remember they had brought me a piece of paper in Greek at a police station, I didn't know what I was reading and that I had a divorce petition in front of me and so the process proceeded."
He expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that from the first moment he told the police what was happening: "From the beginning, the justice system fought me. I wrote it in my testimony. I have 189 gold coins (...). If you arrest me today, she will steal everything from me. I was not in the country in February when they claimed that I had committed the rape. The police did not hear a single word of what I said while I was in prison for 1.5 years. The day after my arrest, my wife did go to the safe deposit box. Now I've proven it all."
The choice of Cyprus and prisons
>> Davidson, speaking to "F", also referred to the cost which, as he said, does not count: "We were together for 11 years. My daughters from my first marriage had her as their mother. And they were betrayed too. The emotional damage is on my daughters. You can't count the emotional cost. It was worse than losing €5 million. I lost 25 kilos in prison."
>> Answering a question about how he ended up in Cyprus, he told us that he and his now ex-wife were looking for a place in Europe to relocate. He said that he himself had acquired money and was looking for a place for quiet retirement. "South Africa is the most dangerous and violent country in the world. We have 120 murders a day. I grew up looking for a place to retire and do a small business in the Mediterranean (food store in Limassol)," he told us. He said that together with his family, one of his daughters came to Cyprus, while the other stayed in South Africa where she is studying.
>> He told us that he has coached seven bodybuilding athletes, who have distinguished themselves worldwide. He was an official of the federation of the sport in his country, while now he coaches athletes and is an international judge." In prison, as he told us, he developed friendships and coached prisoners.
>> Regarding the Central Prisons, he said that he was initially placed in ward "10" where each cell had three people and he slept on the floor. "I was being bitten by insects," he said. Later it was transferred to wing "2". He spoke highly of prison officers. According to his words, they gave him courage, were convinced that he was innocent and kept him in wing '2', where conditions were clearly better: "When I moved to wing '2', I made some friends and it was much better. When you watched the news, the '2' wing was shown and that the 'Cypriot Prison was wonderful'. But they don't show you the '10', the '9', the '5' wing. It's very bad. The prison guards were very friendly with me. They knew I wasn't committing a crime. There were very nice people on staff. They told me not to worry, The prisoners for sexual offences are in ward "11", but the prison guards did not move me there, they left me in wing "2" because they knew that I was not a rapist. I have two daughters. I can't live with rapists. They left me in wing "2". They showed understanding, compassion. They were really nice to me. They believed my story. They gave me courage, told me not to worry and I thank God for that. They were very compassionate."
He said he experienced stabbings, fights, but also incredible drug trafficking: "It was a very dangerous place. I lived with serial killers. They are not normal people. They are dangerous people. I am 53 years old and I saw people stabbing each other, beating each other... Real criminals."
At another point he said: "Drugs are something unbelievable. It was shocking. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."
She said she was raped in 2022 and then... Change date
- They fell into constant contradictions during the cross-examination made by Stefanou
The 58-page decision of the Permanent Criminal Court of Larnaca (D. Theodorou-P.E.D., E. Efthymiou – A.E.D., G. Ioannidou-Papa – A.E.D.) causes a sensation. She is unanimous and catapultive for Davidson's now ex-wife, her sister who was allegedly raped by the latter and their mother.
The Court also finds responsibilities in the Cyprus Police, which did not investigate what the acquitted person said from the first moment about the motive of the wife and the gold coins in the safe deposit box, talking about an "omission", and this "given that from the first moment the Defendant claimed a financial motive on the part, especially, of MK4, for the complaint".
At the center of the trial was the alleged rape of A.K.'s sister, but also two incidents for which the prosecuting authority promoted the position that the 53-year-old behaved violently towards the two sisters and their mother, grabbing them by the neck.
During the cross-examination carried out in the last three by Elias Stefanou, the defendant's defense lawyer, a number of contradictions emerged according to the conclusion of the Court. There were cases where new important elements were added to the narrative, which was attempted to be promoted by the women, that had not previously been submitted to the Police, while there were also conflicting positions between the three testimonies. Simply put, one thing was saying about an event and another about the other. There was even testimony about an alleged attack that Davidson made on his sister-in-law while he was in the driver's seat of the car and which attack is practically impossible to do.
The Court, in fact, at several points in the decision quoted an excerpt from the cross-examination that Mr. Stefanou made to the two sisters (note precise conversation) to indicate the striking contradictions.
More characteristically, Davidson's ex-wife said she did not know that there were gold coins in the safe deposit box, while a video showed her being in the safe area with Joseph at the time the latter placed gold coins there. "We will directly state that her testimony was shaken to such an extent during the cross-examination that it cannot be accepted at any point," the Court notes, among other things.
For the sister of Davidson's ex-wife, M.K. 5 and her alleged rape, there is a contradictory testimony as to the time the felony was committed. He first told the Police that he was raped in February 2022 and then, in a supplementary statement, he said that the offense took place in February 2023. In addition, while she said that Davidson violated her personal space and had harassing behaviour, however, in cross-examination she admitted that it was practically impossible for the defendant to approach her personal space.
Also, when it was pointed out to her that due to taking steroids and physical side effects Davidson could not have practical reasons to rape her, she responded in a way that shook her testimony to its foundations, showing ignorance and answering in a way that was out of logic.
The Court also points out that he was completely convinced by what the defendant said before him: "For the sake of completeness, we note that the Defendant remained firm in the Defense positions that were promoted, despite the extensive nature of his answers. The Defendant answered immediately, without hesitation and spinning to each lawyer. The Court did not detect any attempt on his part to either conceal or distort facts. It was pervasive that the Accused had anger inside him and bitterness for what happened and for the position he was in, but we did not find anything that would cast doubt on his testimony. In addition, we can only identify that the Accused, although he was re-examined, in this regard, adequately, at no point in his testimony are any evasions, contradictions and/or other inherent indications that could be the basis for a judgment of unreliability."
The Criminal Court expressed a positive opinion about all three defense witnesses. The verdict of the judiciary concludes as follows:
"The Prosecution has tried to reconstruct the present case, as has already been pointed out, on the testimony of the Complainants. Therefore, their credibility is the cornerstone of the accusatory version.
Summarizing what we mentioned above, we say directly that evaluating the testimony of the Complainants as a whole, our position is clear and unscrupulous.
Apart from the extremely poor impression we formed of their reliability, we have concluded that in many places it was completely fabricated, pretentious and on certain facts completely insincere. This was evident both from the content of the affidavits and from the various contradictions and omissions as above.
In those circumstances, the Court is called upon to apply the well-established principle that guilt must be established beyond a reasonable doubt. The existence of reasonable doubt does not allow for conviction, regardless of the seriousness of the charges.
In the present case, these doubts are not theoretical or superficial, but arise from essential elements of the testimony. These are doubts that affect the core of the case and cannot be ignored. Consequently, the Prosecution has not proved the case beyond any reasonable doubt in the charges as attributed to the Accused. The Accused is acquitted and acquitted of all the charges he faces."
